"FAMILY MATTERS"
A SERIES OF ORIGINAL PAINTINGS ON CANVAS
BY LYNDA TAYLOR
I tend to paint more still life paintings during the winter months, when daylight hours are short. My most recent project has been a cycle of work based on Family History. This is proving a fascinating area of research and has taken me on a meandering exploration of County Durham, Cumbria and Northumberland to discover more about a variety of "family related topics"-including the history of Reivers, genealogy, antiques, mining, lime burning, lime manufacture, lime kilns, dolomite, various pits and places like Shincliffe, Shadforth, Sedgefield, Shildon, Lamesley, Easington, Washington, Ryhope, Harraton, Fatfield, Mordon, Rudd's Hill, Mainsforth Lime Works, Durham City, Cornforth, Ferryhill Station, Tudoe, Spennymoor, Bishop Middleham, Bishop Auckland and The Crag all of which have particular family associations.
The resulting works on canvas should be seen as both literal representations of the objects, but also as metaphors.
Most of the objects seen in the paintings were accumulated in the family home over a period of a hundred and fifty years, by five successive generations: A Routledge and Johnson Miner's Safety Lamp, invented by a great uncle, a miner's hammer retrieved from an ancient toolbox, a teapot used "for best", an antique Staffordshire spill holder, Grandfather's pocket watch... They chart a history of a family, of the mining industry, and of the region.
During my childhood in the 1950s, these family possessions meant nothing to me- just old fashioned clutter, to be very grudgingly dusted, but otherwise ignored. The very familiarity of these objects in their allotted places rendered them almost invisible.
After the deaths of my parents, came the difficult task of sorting through these accumulated layers of belongings- musty birth certificates, death certificates, drafts of wills, Family Bibles, inscribed with unfamiliar names in scratchy writing in black ink; objects that had once been entirely practical, but now obsolete; objects once ornamental, but now laughably unfashionable. A huge mess of "stuff"; each object with its own secret history.
Making sense of all of this has lead me on my voyage of discovery.
These paintings may be specific to me- but they also represent the former lives and times of millions of miners.
 chain medium.JPG)