‘Margaret Clark in Newcastle circa 1961’, (2011). Oil on linen, 90 x 120 cm  2011

I met Margaret Clark, my future wife, at art school in Newcastle upon Tyne in the late 1950s where she was studying fine art and printed textiles. She lived with her sister Patsy and parents in the poor, working class, West End district of Elswick (178 Stone St) not far from the Scotswood Rd. Her father worked in a shipyard and his Geordie accent was so strong I could hard...