‘The Cyclist’ (2014) oil on linen, 71 x 107 cm

A self-portrait as a cyclist in the suburbs of Grimsby, late 1950s or early 1960s. What appealed to me about the setting - Yarborough Road - was its very ordinariness and banality. (The setting was derived from a black and white documentary photograph by John Terry.) Life in the lower middle class suburbs may have been dull but the housing was comfortable and there were local amenities such as shops, parks and public bus services. Two signs of increasing affluence were the growing number of cars on the roads and the many television aerials sprouting from rooftops. Television became a mass medium in the 1950s and homes scattered across the land were linked by national broadcasting services. Half of the canvas is devoted to the sky which some viewers may feel lacks incident but I recall many days when the sky was bright but overcast with light grey clouds.