Here we feature an artist from our society each month

Explore one of our talented local artists and their stunning creations. Click on images or social media icons for further information on the artist Come back to see a new artist next month!

This month we are featuring Terry Scales

Artist and author Terry Scales has lived by the Thames all his life and has devoted his painting career to exploring and recording the river’s life and livelihoods. Charting the enormous changes that have taken place in London’s Docklands in the last half century, from dark and moving drawings made in the early 1950s to the bright and cheerful paintings of bustling Greenwich and Bankside in the early 2000’s.

Terry Scales’s colourful life began in London’s Docklands. His experience of growing up in Bermondsey is the basis of his successful first novel, Bermondsey Boys, published in 1999.

He entered Camberwell School of Art in 1946 at the exceptionally young age of 13. After National Service with the RAF he worked for five years as a docker at the Surrey Docks and along Bermondsey Waterfront. Following a successful exhibition of his work, Camberwell School of Art invited him to join the painting staff and he continued there as a lecturer for over thirty years.

Terry states "My aim has never been ‘to report the River’. Topographical evidence is only part of the whole. I am exploring an area between dream and reality, in which regrets for a lost past are balanced by the appearance of new forms such as the Eurostar tunnel at Hungerford Bridge, and the vibrant life of a newly awakened Bankside."

Terry's pictures have been included in exhibitions held by the Arts Council, the Royal Academy, the Whitechapel Art Gallery and English Heritage. In 2003 he had a solo show at The Guildhall entitled 'Homage to the Working Thames - 50 years of Riverside Paintings'. His work is held by the Civil Service, the National Maritime Museum, The Guildhall and Tate & Lyle among others, as well as numerous private collections.