Duffin launches new book

Last updated 12:05, Tuesday, 04 November 2008

POPULAR Barrow artist John Duffin talks about his new book Barrow 2 and the amazing success of his debut Barrow two years ago.

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SATURDAY September 2, 2006. 11am.
It’s easily the worst day of the year so far. Outside the rain is heavy and horizontal, the wind is bending the trees and daylight looks like it might not bother turning up today.
The phone rings. . .
It’s John Duffin and he’s a little concerned.
Today’s the day of his big book launch at the Dock Museum.
The whole summer was spent painstakingly preparing his new book Barrow, a collection of more than 80 paintings and sketches of his hometown selected from more than two decades of work.
It was going on sale for the first time at a specially arranged signing session.
“Do you think anyone will come out in this?”, was his opening line.
He needn’t have worried.
We arrived at the Dock Museum five minutes before two to be greeted by the sight of two huge queues of people waiting in line.
“Is there something else on today?” Duffin asked at the sight of hundreds of people waiting to meet him, books in hand.
More than 800 people turned up that day to buy the book, making it an instant success for the artist. His paintings of his hometown have always been popular, but this was something else.
As well as the paintings and sketches, Duffin also wrote about his life in Barrow, words that resonated with thousands of people in the town in much the same way as the Love Barrow campaign is doing now.
Looking back at that day in September two years ago, Duffin said: “I was completely taken aback by the immense reaction to the first book.
“My paintings have always been received favourably in the area but I had no idea that so many people had looked at them and appreciated them.
“Barrow people can be quite reserved at giving out compliments, but a queue of 800 people for an art book tells you all you need to know about people’s support and passion for the book. I think the book reawakened a sense of pride in the town.
“Painting is a solitary experience and it is a great contrast to go out and meet people who are moved by my work.
“The main thing I got from it was a sense that my lonely crusade to record and depict Barrow as I see it had been worthwhile, others clearly felt the same passion for the town as I did.
“My paintings are celebrations of Barrow, they are thank yous to a place that did a lot for me when I was a young man.
“What I have tried to do with my paintings of Barrow is to put some of the love I have for the town into the pictures. If you can get that across then I think people respond to it and see and appreciate all the work and care you have invested in your paintings.
“The success of the first book was a great stimulus to me and made me want to paint other views of the town, get a more complete picture of the area.”
As well as the huge local reaction, the book also gave Duffin and the town some national exposure.
Author, and friend of The Beatles, Hunter Davies wrote about his work and even bought a print of Duffin’s painting of Barrow AFC’s Holker Street ground.
An invite to appear on Radio Four followed as well as numerous articles in magazines and other newspapers.
All this naturally led Duffin to think about Barrow 2 – a new collection of never-before-seen work that will be on sale in November.
Again it will be purely pictures and words about Barrow, many completed in the past two years giving a clear guide to how his talent is developing and maturing.
Duffin said: “Book 2 is a result of the immense number of requests I have had from people asking me for more images of the area, or asking whether I had painted their school or a particular view and if I did to make sure it was in a second volume.
“With this book I have covered some of the places and people I missed in volume one, The Sixth Form College, Thorncliffe School, Parkview School, Oxford Street under snow, Dalton Road under snow, Salthouse Pavilion, Barrow Island and many pubs and bars.
“It also includes a series of paintings I did of shipbuilders nearly 20 years ago, capturing the working lives of the shipyard when it was at its peak in the 1980s.
“The first book was sent all over the world.
“Barrovians have often travelled far afield and it was heartwarming to hear of books on their way to all the corners of the globe. My paintings are mythic visions of the town, because I genuinely see it as a mythic landscape.
“I grew up with immense ships such as HMS Sheffield and HMS Invincible being built, I marvelled at the sea, the skies, the channel, it was a place of immensity and wonder to me. My paintings are my vision of my hometown.
“I get occasional criticism for my skies being too wild or dynamic, but the colours and tones I use are not meant to be a photographic record, they are painted visions of how I feel about the town.
“Turner painted the Thames and Constable painted Suffolk, both exaggerating and distorting their views to capture the way they personally felt about these places. I do the same with my pictures of Barrow.
“Volume 2 builds on the succeses of volume 1, but also moves my views of the town and its people onwards, looking closer at areas I had not painted before and at life in the town. I hope that it touches people and makes them look again at the area. It is a celebration of my home town, and it’s from the heart.”