Tate Britain

I spent a lovely afternoon with my friend Mary at Tate Britain visiting the Lowry exhibition. There were several rooms full of his paintings and drawings and I was surprised at the variety in his work. What struck me the most was the use of colour. In all his pictures where a church was depicted, he had painted them black, menacing and somewhat disturbing, even the windows had been blacked out, they stood out and dominated the piece. Also where there were lakes or pools except for the beach pictures, looking at them sent a shiver down my spine almost as though there was something sinister lurking beneath the surface. The majority of pictures also had shots of bright red in them, either in the form of an item of clothing, hats, scarves or alternatively, bright red lampposts. We also noticed that all the people were wearing either a hat or scarf covering their heads. His pictures told a very sombre tale of an austere time with some relief of going to the fair at Easter or a day trip to the seaside, but on the whole a very graphic illustration of industrialised Britain.