Monet, Manet, Matisse, Picasso, Pissarro, Rembrandt, Rodin, Dali, all artists who need only one name to be recognised by. And now there is Brad, writes Michael Holland.
I met Brad one murky and miserable Monday afternoon at New Cross Station as we both struggled to get home while Southeastern trains struggled to function with ‘leaves on the line’. I quickly realised Brad had a hatred for Southeastern and their trains, but without actually moving home or his place of work he was stuck with this Monday to Friday journey (plus Saturdays when Millwall are at home). I could feel his pain. He thrives on it.
I managed to get the conversation away from trains and discovered that Brad had actually taught himself how to play piano during lockdown. ‘Which was great,’ he said, almost breaking into a smile. He had several clips on his phone that I could listen to, each one a dire dirge. Each one a tune to die for – Literally! Or be cremated to. I could see the electronic platform signs flashing CANCELLED, and knew I had no escape from the music that put the fun in funeral.
‘What else did you do in lockdown?’ I asked desperately.
Brad did a lot actually. He had embraced lockdown, calling it a ‘blissful time’. Initially, it was gardening that filled his days but when that novelty wore off he started painting, ’using old bits of wood that I’d piled up in the shed’; a pastime this melancholy man found ‘relaxing’ and had thrown himself into. It wasn’t long before he had amassed over fifty paintings.
I was amazed until he revealed that his hero was Tony Hancock – a man who had made a living from being miserable – and that he had recreated all the artworks Hancock had painted in his film about a modern artist, The Rebel, one of his most famous films. ‘I hung them up in the garden – I’m not sure the neighbours were too pleased, with all my colours the wrong shape!’ He joked, in a Hancock monotone.
Other paintings in that initial burst of creativity were ‘piled up in the shed again and haven’t seen the light of day since’.
Of course, Brad had photos of his work that he enjoyed telling me had no style or form but which I discovered had plenty of both. We adjourned to the nearest coffee shop to sit out the wait for the next train and I took the chance to get behind this mask of misery.
Brad had always been interested in art and for years had made his own Christmas and birthday cards that included ‘little drawings and things, which people seemed to like’. That must have planted a seed because he has been ‘stockpiling art supplies’ for years, and while out walking his dog he would pull ‘tins of paint and lumps of wood out of skips’ knowing, or hoping, that one day they would come in handy.
As I scrolled through the images I asked who he was inspired by. ‘My go-to-artists have always been the likes of Edward Hopper and Mark Rothko, both of whom were masters of conveying that sense of loneliness and isolation, which I’ve always felt myself, and I’ve really got into Turner over the last three years; I took regular trips to the National Gallery during the pandemic and spent hours sitting and looking at his Fighting Temeraire painting… I really love the way he painted light and sky.’
I could see how the artists he admired had influenced his work and wondered if he had thought of showing them to others besides his neighbours, and was surprised to hear that he had already exhibited some in his local bar: ‘An eclectic mix of seascape paintings, floral pictures in a more traditional style, and one or two of my ‘Shabby Man’ paintings, which all sold really well,’ said Brad. ‘Weirdly, the darker they were, or the more melancholy they were, the better they sold,’ he added with no hint of irony.
The exhibition had come about because Mike Wren, the landlord of The Long Pond in Eltham, had seen photos of Brad’s art and offered Brad the space he makes available to local artists.
A second exhibition is about to open with an exclusive collection of the Shabby Man paintings that sold so well before, complemented this time by pencil and graphic ink drawings, watercolours, and works on canvas.
After our brief encounter at the station I kind of know what visitors can expect in this exhibition but Brad explained it thus: ‘Anybody that’s known me for a while knows I can be pretty miserable when I want to be, and I think that my piano playing and my paintings are a pretty good reflection of that, even though, for the most part, it’s actually those creative things that bring me the most “joy”, if that’s the right word.’
Joy probably isn’t the right word but I’ll be going along to see if a few ‘Shabby’ sales can bring a smile to Brad’s face, and hopefully to find that he will be launching an album of new piano concertos.
The exhibition opens on 30th November and runs throughout January at The Long Pond, 110 Westmount Road, Eltham, London, SE9 1UT
Details: https://thelongpond.co.uk
