England's Glory

This painting was one of a series responding to a year of drawing at Easington Colliery, County Durham, England. Easington was the last deep coal mine in England to be closed down and demolished. I wanted to capture the whole demolition process in drawings and photographs, but in the studio I wanted to develop an idea about industrial desolation, as if this mine had been abandoned centuries ago and was in a state of post-human ruination, inspired by the films of Tarkovsky such as ‘Stalker.’ Much of the industrial economy of northeast England had been wrecked by economic and political change especially the mines and shipbuilding. The landscape at Easington (the location for the film ‘Billy Elliot’) was seemed like a film set when I was there and there is something science fiction-like about this painting. It won 3rd prize at the Claremorris International Open, Ireland in 1995.

$11937

About the artist

Lionel Playford

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I am a painter of northern landscapes and of the sea. I'm an established artist in the north of England but I'm also known more widely with for example my TV participation in the SKY Portrait Artist of the Year competition.