The first painting of a series and it’s a memory of the North East of England as I remember it, probably influenced by a little nostalgia, but definitely based on an amalgamation of three or four drawings taken from my art school sketch books. A County Durham pit village, the villages that were a smaller version of the larger towns but a self-contained and independent community relying on nobody but themselves and the coal mine that life revolved around. I vividly remember playing football on Saturdays against some tough teams based at the miner’s welfare in the pit villages and towns. The league was called something like The Newcastle and District Welfare League. Ruthless warfare on the pitch but unfailingly hospitable after the game as you nursed your bruises. The painting is framed now and ready to be one of the birthday presents for our oldest grandson on his eighteenth birthday. Job done then! But what is next? I don’t know yet.
John Richardson Lino Prints 
Those villages lost everything in the 80s didn’t they? I used to live in Hett – not itself a pit village but close enough that I saw the decline happening nearby.
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Sue and I remember driving down from Newcastle to Middlesbrough in the early 90’s through County Durham to West Hartlepool and on to Middlesbrough to see my parents and it was one of the most depressing diversions we’ve ever taken. Destroyed didn’t cover the landscape or the people we met. People never understood when we got back to home to Berkshire. Talk about change for the worse. UTB, John
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