FOLLOWING IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF LOWRY
The celebrated English painter Laurence Stephen Lowry is best known for his industrial landscapes and ‘matchstick men’, depicting Lancashire mill workers. But his portfolio also included many landscapes, seascapes and portraits; some of which he sketched while holidaying in Berwick-upon-Tweed over a span of 40 years. The area provided him with a wealth of inspiration.
Lowry liked to produce his initial sketches from life, which often meant working outdoors. From these sketches, he would make more refined drawings before starting work on a painting, which would be characterised not only by his style, but also by his restricted five-colour palette of flake white, ivory black, vermilion, Prussian blue and yellow ochre.
He produced his first oil painting of Berwick in 1935 and went on to create more than 30 paintings and drawings of the area.
“Lowry holidayed in Berwick many times from the mid 1930s to the 1970s, staying in the Castle Hotel near the railway station,” says Alison Douglas, of the Berwick-upon-Tweed Preservation Trust.
Created by the Trust in 2003, the Lowry Trail enables visitors to stand in the very places where the artist made his sketches of the town, including Dewar’s Lane, Sally Port, Strother’s Yard and town wall archways Cowport and Scotsgate.
The trail is an approximately circular 5-mile route and highlights parts of the historic town that would otherwise be left unseen by many of today’s visitors, along with several points in nearby Spittal. The whole trail takes approximately 3 hours to walk at a leisurely pace. Earlier this year, the Trust refurbished and replaced some of the orientation boards which feature information about Lowry’s time in Berwick and the sketch or painting that Lowry drew in each location around the town.
The first point on the trail can be accessed via Bridge Street or the quayside. Although the pencil drawing Dewar’s Lane is not dated, art historians believe it possibly dates back to his first visit to Berwick in 1935. Exiting Dewar’s Lane and turning left onto Bridge Street leads to Sally Port. “The arch depicted in Lowry’s drawing leads through the walls to the quayside; the steps lead up to the wall walk, which gives wonderful views of the town,” says Alison. “The quayside is well worth a visit before rejoining the trail, which takes visitors anti-clockwise via the town walls to where Lowry stood to draw the pier and lighthouse.” The trail then moves onto the pier, where Lowry made his sketches for The Sea.
In all, there are 18 points to visit along the trail, including the harbour, where the nearby information board shows the viewpoint for one of Lowry’s most colourful works: Spittal Sands.