Brian Gordon - Slate Artist

One day in 1990, when I had a big gallery in the centre of Liverpool, Brian Gordon brought in two oil paintings for me to see. Gallery owners are offered masses of paintings, most of which are duds, but just occassionally, you immediatly know you have a winner. Both sold within 48 hours, and since then we have sold every oil we could get, and thousands of prints.

Brian is officially classed as a "Naive" artist. He is entirely self taught, and served a seven year apprenticeship as a metal engraver, which forms the basis of his craft. He has always painted, but one day in 1978, he visited a one time familiar street in Liverpool where he was brought up, only to find it derelict. He picked up an old roof slate, which gave him the idea of engraving and portraying the images of his childhood onto the very slate that came from places that he knew.

The use of slate is of paramount importance to him, as Brian says "The slate has to smell of the soot and grime of years, They are the very soul of my work". Each slate has to be prepared, sketched out, engraved, then painted in oil paint.....a very exacting process with little room for error. It was because each slate took so long to produce, that we decided to publish a number of his works in print form, so that a wider audience can enjoy his unique style of art.

Brian used to exhibit regularly at London's RONA gallery, and we held his first one man exhibition in June 1991, which was a 100% sell out, since then we have exhibited many of Brian's oil until the gallery closed in early 1999. We used to call him "The Liverpool Lowry", and his works have been exhibited in Europe and America, and are in private collections worldwide.