The so-called summer ‘silly season’ is upon us, when the media reportedly struggle to find newsworthy leads, airports and ports are full to capacity and holidays are in full swing. Curiously, our 19th Century ancestors knew this period as ‘cucumber time’; when work was slack and cucumbers were growing well.
In response to the season, I thought I’d focus on five local watercolour paintings that I purchased at an Oxhey Village Environment Group (OVEG) Summer Fayre in the late 1990s; the first time that an art exhibition was held at the popular annual event. It was OVEG’s second venture into art; the first being the highly successful Oxhey Exhibition of Creative Arts in November 1989.
If you’re sitting comfortably, let’s begin with Oxhey Village Green: the site of OVEG’s Summer Fayre. Well-known artist Peter Whitworth, who was then a near neighbour of my parents in Wilcot Avenue, Oxhey, captured the scene in watercolour in 1990. Peter chose an unusual perspective. He painted from Attenborough’s fields with the three majestic poplar trees as focal points, through which the lower part of Oxhey Village Green and the side of 80 Lower Paddock Road are visible.
Peter Whitworth’s painting of Oxhey Green from Attenborough’s fields
Peter’s style changed dramatically in his watercolour rendering of Cheslyn Gardens in Nascot Wood Road, Watford. The pond with water lilies and small waterfall appears in the foreground, with a backdrop of trees of colourful shades. With firework-like white brushstrokes on the right-hand side of the painting, the scene appears to explode with natural life. A lively painting of a place of beauty in the town.
Peter Whitworth’s painting of Cheslyn Gardens, Watford
Another of Peter’s paintings, in his more conventional style, was notated by him as ‘an experiment on Arches rough paper’. Manufactured in the Vosges, France for 700 years, Arches art paper was used by Van Gogh, Picasso and Matisse. Peter selected their rough paper for its bumpy texture and created an atmospheric watercolour painting of another, more familiar view from Attenborough’s fields. In the right-hand foreground is the little slatted wooden bridge over which animals and people have passed for many years. Houses in Merryhill Road appear in the middle distance and, towering over the rural scene like a guardian angel, is the ancient St. James’ Church. I think that Peter would have been well satisfied with his ‘experiment on Arches rough paper’, just as I was purchasing his excellent work of art. He took to painting as a serious hobby after retiring as a civil servant and several of his local paintings can be viewed in Bushey Museum. Peter and his wife later moved to Billingshurst, West Sussex.
Peter Whitworth’s painting, looking towards Bushey from Attenborough’s fields
Lesley Filer’s haunting watercolour dated 1997 was painted from Attenborough’s fields looking towards St. James Church. It is from a similar viewpoint to Peter’s, but focuses on the church. He captured the hazy morning mist as it was lifting; an evocative view that was, and no doubt still is, a favourite among local artists. Lesley lived in Chiltern Avenue, Bushey and was Maintenance Manager at Woolworths in Watford High Street. He enjoyed weekly art classes with Leslie Smith at 27 Watford Heath.
Lesley Filer’s painting of St. James’ Church, Bushey from Attenborough’s fields, 1997
The Grade II listed Victorian Gothic Style Oxhey Grange features in Harry Evans’ 1990 watercolour painting. I recall Harry as a kindly man and a member of OVEG. He outlined in black the main architectural features of what is now the rear of the house; apparently the original frontage when it was built in 1876. Harry carefully detailed the two large bays: the left-hand one with coved eaves, decorative plasterwork and a trumpet spire; the right-hand one with pointed arches to the octagonal turreted roof and a balconette below. I sense from Harry’s careful brush strokes that he held a fascination for the gracious house, as I did as a youngster.
Harry Evans’ painting of Oxhey Grange, 1990
The only time I ever exhibited a painting was at this same OVEG Summer Fayre, aiming to ‘do my bit’. Evening art classes at Bushey Meads School had given me scope for practice and I had a few dubious paintings to hand. The one I chose to exhibit – and I thought that was all it would be – depicted the then-newly-renamed Bushey & Oxhey Station from an old postcard. The scene included the station building with its front yard and the corner of the old Duke of Edinburgh public house. The arrangement was that each painting at the exhibition was priced. Part-way through the fayre, I was tapped on the shoulder and told that my painting had sold. I have no idea who bought it and wonder whether it is still hanging on a wall somewhere or, more likely, consigned to an attic; hopefully a local one.
- With thanks to Marion Cannard and Andrew Filer
Lesley is the daughter of the late Ted Parrish, a well-known local historian and documentary filmmaker. He wrote 96 nostalgic articles for the ‘Evening Post-Echo’ in 1982-83 which have since been published in ‘Echoes of Old Watford, Bushey & Oxhey’, available at www.pastdayspublishing.com and Bushey Museum. Lesley is currently working on ‘Two Lives, Two World Wars’, a companion volume that explores her father’s and grandfather’s lives and war experiences, in which Watford, Bushey and Oxhey’s history will take to the stage once again.
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