Work in progress: A nostalgic Edgware painting

This is a naive narrative painting, set in Green Lane in Edgware in about 1974. It shows two men in their best shul gear, greeting each other in the street. A woman is walking her dog nearby, and behind them, peering through the window of her front room, is my grandma Polly. The house appears as it did throughout my childhood, the scene of many family Shabbat meals, cosy winter afternoons and lazy summer days in the garden exploring my uncle’s wartime tin train collection amongst the tools and dusty clutter in the garden shed. Here’s a few photos showing how this picture’s been developed, from small pencil sketch to nearly complete painting.

sketch for a naive narrative painting - people meeting after shul, in Edgware — Sketch idea for this picture. Two men meeting after shul. I called it: “Good Yonteff,” (with Mrs Kuchinsky looking on). I wrote in “Gerald” because I was thinking of focussing this series on my fictional Edgware character, Gerald Wiseman. Mrs Kuchinsky was one of my grandmother’s friends.

My grandma’s house at around the time my painting is set (circa 1974). On the doorstep are Grandma Polly (right), and her sister Eva. Plastic wheeled rubbish bins haven’t yet been invented, and the pavement and houses are looking clean and very well-kept!

A rough pencil-drawing directly on the canvas set up the basic shapes and lines. This then gets a coat of gesso to seal it.

Naive narrative painting set in Edgware. Two Jewish men greet each other in the street, on their way home from synagogue. — The outline drawing for the painting takes shape. Here I’ve painted over the initial pencil sketch in fine brown lines. This is now the precise basis of the painting.

It’s the clearly drawn details, the relatively flat perspective, and the simple, everyday nature of the scene that give this painting its naive character. Also, the elements of story that underlie it are important in making this a naive narrative painting.