Hall of Mirrors-Fairground show

A couple of years ago, my Mum rang me to tell me that she thought she saw some of my fairground painting on a Littlewoods TV advert. I looked at their site on the internet just to see ...and there it was...'The Hall of Mirrors'. I haven't seen it for quite a few years, but it looks as though it is wearing well..

I initially painted it for Andrew Harris, who at the time travelled with Carters Steam Fair . He asked me to paint it with an Art Nouveau theme.... which I did , painting four ladies representing the four seasons. Hidden on the front is a Trompe l'oeil Robin and a ' Painted lady' butterfly. At the time my workshop was the upstairs of an old barn near Stanway, Glos. The front came apart to get it up the stairs ,so I didn't see it all together until Andrew came to collect it.I remember being very relieved to see that all the pictures did actually fit together !

To see the advert please click on the following link.

.http://www.littlewoods.com/web/en/shopthead.page

Fred Fowle 'The master' fairground artist

This is the wonderful painter 'The Master' Fred Fowle. Years ago I kept seeing a particular style of painting at all the fairs and I loved it...It was always signed by Fred Fowle. At college I mentioned Fred's name to one of my tutors Mike McInnery, I was as pleased as punch when he said that he had met Fred, that Fred was still about and that he could give me Fred's telephone number and address! I wrote to him and got a reply saying that I would be welcome if I thought it was worth it.

The original letter that Fred sent to me that kicked everything off for me.

I visited Fred and found him very friendly and approachable, and it was definitely a very rewarding visit. He was happy to explain in detail how to do the painting techniques and answer all my questions. I tried to visit as often as I could and was lucky to meet Mark Gill another fabulous painter now working in Australia, I believe...he had a very cheeky and contagious smile. I also met Roger Vinney a champion woodgrainer and cartoonist..he had a woodgrained fridge in his kitchen along with grained glass milk bottles! I wrote my degree thesis all about Fred.

They were all a total inspiration to me and  that is why I do what I do now.

George Codona's Waltzer..Side of a waltzer car being decorated by Fred Fowle.

Self portrait of Roger Vinney from a Ghost Ride.

Gypsy Lee boards in background painted by Mark Gill..At least I'm pretty sure they were his.

A daft thing happened due to the top Black and White photograph. One day I noticed it being used on a fairground website, I was pleased and surprised and asked if they could just add a caption saying that I had taken the photograph...well talk about a misunderstanding another ladies name was mentioned and they said that they would remove it completely because of goodness knows what...very silly so I thought I would share it with everyone again plus some other pictures because Fred was 'MAGIC' and I was extremely privileged to meet him and see him at work.

An interesting website with photographs of the completed waltzer can be found at http://www.fairart.co.uk/