Over the Dale | Jack Hamill 1920-2015
Jack Hamill was a legendary artist, journalist, and author from Rochdale, north-east of Manchester, England. He generously gave away many of his paintings to charity and to inspire and encourage anyone with an interest in art to take up painting themselves.
(Photograph from Manchester Evening News).
Jack died aged 94 in March 2015. He only retired from covering Rochdale AFC for the Rochdale Observer in 2007 - a position he held for over 60-years. He's said to have sent reports by carrier pigeon in the early years!
Before becoming a freelance journalist, Jack spent some years in the British Army during World War 2 and allegedly was a part of an intelligence team guarding Winston Churchill. In 2013 Jack was asked if he'd ever thought to write a novel - in fact, he had: 35-years earlier, "The Road that Adam Took"! Typical to Jack, the book's proceeds go to a hospice.
Amazingly, one of Jack's framed and glazed watercolors, "Over the Dale" was on sale in the ARTBANK! (Since SOLD APRIL 2017)
The painting came to ARTBANK via our friend Peter Cunningham, himself a prolific and popular artist with a catalogue of bright woodland acrylics available in the ARTBANK. If I recall correctly, Peter was given the painting by Jack some 25 or 30 years ago?
Peter follows in Jack's mould, teaching novices to paint right in the deep end, and we look forward to one of his workshops in the ARTBANK some time soon. (You may see one of Peter's paintings in the Art Auction pages).
Jack Hamill's watercolours remain highly collectable and only rarely turn up at auction fetching handsome sums as the true value of his craftsmanship is more widely recognised.
Taking a detailed look at "Over the Dale", it's quickly apparent that Jack had great skill with painting a highly detailed scene without barely painting anything at all: he skillfully leaves much of the image to your imagination. He invokes the strongest sense of place.
The foreground furze (or gorse) and other moorland foliage bursts from the image with the scantiest of strokes. It's a suggestion that absorbs the eye and together with the clever sky and overall atmosphere transports you to the rugged terrains found along the M62 corridor and between Greater Manchester, Lancashire, and God's County, Yorkshire.
It's entirely possible that the scene is based on, or toward Rooley Moor, which is but a stone's throw and short hike north from Jack's native Rochdale. The scene is a time capsule as the far hills are now topped with a large wind farm and a parade of pylons crosses west to east as urbanisation erodes unprotected landscapes.
Dry stone walls, buildings, and far-distant mountains are impressed easily into your mind. It's too easy to feel the cool of a cloud's shadow in anticipation of a caress on your cheek from a warming Sun in a few moment's time. Meanwhile, there's a pastoral sense of wanting to stumble into the painting and between the buildings to get a clearer view of the Dales beyond.
Is it winter with a dusting of snow, or a plantation of wavy cotton grass: daisies, perhaps?
But let's pause on those almost trademark buildings. There's barely two strokes of paint to outline them; yet their solidity is without question? That said, the one on the left with the cleverly floating windows reminds me of moorland hikes along the Pennine Way with a pair of walkers striding off into the distance, or perhaps I'm waiting for them to catch up?
I'm no art critic but there's no doubt: this was someone's incredible opportunity to own an original and one of a kind Jack Hamill watercolour.
PAINTING SOLD!
Jack Hamill. 1920 to 2015.
