Watercolour artist, Barry Langroyd Hanson(1939 – 2021), self-described as ‘Bradford’s other artist’, lived for much of his life in the Bradford district. His subjects were wide, including Bradford city centre and the Yorkshire countryside scenes (see example below), as well as still life, wild life, and scenes from the Cameroon, West Africa, which he frequently visited and where, in 2002, he married his late wife, Esther.
‘Rain in the Pennines’. Image: courtesy of the artist.
Barry was educated at local schools then embarked on a range of jobs, including apprentice engineer, motor cycle telegram messenger, and postman, before serving his National Service, which he spent in Cyprus and the Cameroon during the early 1960s. Following his National Service, he spent time exploring the Sahara and West Africa before returning to Britain.
He continued his general education via correspondence courses, which lead him into teaching for 15 years in the Chapeltown area of Leeds.
His art has been largely self taught. He once said of this:
I love art and I’ve always been able to paint – I’ve always been better than David Hockney. I’m Bradford’s other artist!
His subject were often a reflection of the past in Bradford, and he feels that his style has been influenced by the works of Turner, painters of the Norwich School, and by American Artists, including Winslow Homer, Elliot Ohara and John Pike.
Barry later became a groundsman at the Undercliffe Cricket Club and in retirement in 2012 painted a giant size cricket ball on the side of his house in tribute to the sport. Commenting at the time, he said:
Hockney did a painting of trees called Bigger Trees – I’ve created A ‘Bigger Ball’
Mural ‘A Bigger Ball’. Image: Bradford ‘Telegraph & Argus’.
Barry had his work exhibited at Bradford and Shipley Libraries, the Bolton Royd campus of Bradford College, and in the Bradford ‘Open for Art’ exhibition. In 2010, Bradford Industrial Museum showed 35 of Barry’s paintings of scenes in Bradford and in Cameroon. In his later years he also displayed work in the Oastler Market, Bradford and it was featured several times on Bradford Big Screen in the Not Just Hockney presentations of local artists’ work..
Barry’s images of the city were also reproduced in greeting card and poster form and sold at local outlets, including the Bradford Tourist Information Office.
‘Rocking around a Bradford Fairground’.
Barry’s work can also be found at Painters Online
(Images above by courtesy of the artist)