TERRY SCALES
Click on the arrow below to hear Terry's audio track
Recorded with the assistance of Julian May
Recorded with the assistance of Julian May
00.00 Growing up in Rotherhithe in a docker's family 02.45 Evacuation and at age 13 goes to Camberwell art school 07.40 Call up and national service 08.58 Demob and first job
10.35 urged by his father he becomes a docker 14.00 Exhibition and invitation to teach at Camberwell 17.40 Retirement from teaching and retrospective show at the Guildhall
18.20 Terry's method of working 19.35 Focus of interest shifts from Greenwich upriver 24.52 Painting at Ballast Quay and Anchor Iron Wharf
29.12 Enderby's Wharf and cableship John Mackay 32.47 Painting the Thames from Victoria Deep Water Terminal 34.21 Character of the Thames bridges
10.35 urged by his father he becomes a docker 14.00 Exhibition and invitation to teach at Camberwell 17.40 Retirement from teaching and retrospective show at the Guildhall
18.20 Terry's method of working 19.35 Focus of interest shifts from Greenwich upriver 24.52 Painting at Ballast Quay and Anchor Iron Wharf
29.12 Enderby's Wharf and cableship John Mackay 32.47 Painting the Thames from Victoria Deep Water Terminal 34.21 Character of the Thames bridges
Terry Scales is an artist who paints the river, Kentish landscapes and still life subjects. He lives in Greenwich, but was born into a family of dock workers in Rotherhithe. He left school at 13 to go to Camberwell School of Art to study fine art and having completed his studies, he
got a poorly paid job as a background artist in a studio specialising in film posters. He was persuaded by his father to join him in the docks, where he worked for 5 years, before taking up the offer of a teaching post at Camberwell, where he remained for 30 years. During this time he painted and exhibited his work with great success, as he does to this day at the age of 83. His unique perspective on river life and work has given us a wonderful record of the river as it was before the developers took over the waterfront in the post-industrial era.
His paintings are a powerful testimony to an industrial era that has now gone for ever under the glass and concrete of the new residential developments. Click on the images to enlarge
got a poorly paid job as a background artist in a studio specialising in film posters. He was persuaded by his father to join him in the docks, where he worked for 5 years, before taking up the offer of a teaching post at Camberwell, where he remained for 30 years. During this time he painted and exhibited his work with great success, as he does to this day at the age of 83. His unique perspective on river life and work has given us a wonderful record of the river as it was before the developers took over the waterfront in the post-industrial era.
His paintings are a powerful testimony to an industrial era that has now gone for ever under the glass and concrete of the new residential developments. Click on the images to enlarge