Synopsis
Helen Bradley's paintings enjoy a wide appeal both to connoisseurs of Twentieth Century naive art and people who simply enjoy a story illustrated in vibrant colours. Her paintings fetch well into five figures and there is a thriving market in prints of her work. Helen Bradley's homely view of domestic life in Edwardian times, accompanied by brief narratives explaining the action, also appeared in four illustrated books in the 1970s. These have long been out of print and are eagerly sought by collectors. Helen Bradley weaves a beguiling tapestry of daily life in a small Lancashire mill town in the early 1900s. Actual episodes and characters from her own childhood are skilfully interwoven with flights of pure fantasy, producing a unique blend of reality and fiction; the hallmark of a true artist. The charm of her work lies in her ability to capture the essence of a time when children were seen and not heard, but nevertheless noticed everything that was going on. Helen paints this world as it was seen through the child's eyes and a careful observer can usually spot the youthful Helen lurking in the pictures. Using over 100 pictures, Helen Bradley's Lancashire looks at the life of the artist beginning with the inspiration she gained from her childhood, through to its culmination on paper and canvas at the age of sixty-five. The book uses many familiar paintings, as well as hitherto unseen pictures, to trace the development of this artist's unconventional technique and the evolution of her delightful case of characters who fill every picture with teeming life.