Over lockdown I’ve been taking a closer look at my father’s artwork, both his paintings and his pen and ink drawings. It’s long been in my head to write his biography and showcase some of his incredible talent, and at last I’ve made a start in that. The book is underway.
My father, Barrie Sydney Huntbach died in 2006, aged 71. He spent a lifetime drawing and painting, but it was always a hobby. Every spare moment was devoted to capturing the myriad of ideas from his head into thousands of works of art. He has two murals in Portslade, (a town to the west of Brighton, East Sussex). One in the town hall, and the other at the Brighton & Hove branch of Emmaus. Maybe you’ve seen these? He exhibited locally, particularly with his friends in The Society of Catholic Artists, and once in London. My father was fascinated by the subject of religion and it crops up in a lot of his work, though often juxtaposed to the pagan. Paintings can be deeply irreverent, whimsical, and disturbing in equal measures.
His work has been likened to that of Stanley Spencer, Marc Chagall, Beardlsey and Bosch. I think that the drawings have elements that Terry Gilliam of Monty Python fame would appreciate. Some of them have Surrealist tendencies, others are pure Steampunk – before the term was ever coined!
It wasn’t the easiest of starts for my father. He was born prematurely and not expected to live. His parents were ordinary working-class folk living in Nottingham. They had no particular interest in the arts. His childhood was blighted by illness, and he suffered the loss of sight in one eye when a childhood game went wrong. But despite the halts to his education during various convalescent periods, his imagination ran wild. It continued to do so for the rest of his life.
His own working life was spent in a series of mundane, manual jobs. But every evening, and at weekends his fingers worked with acrylic, then oil paints to capture the moving images in his head, pinning them to board, canvas and paper. I’ve started an Instagram page to showcase some of his work, @thesussexsurrealist, please take a look and follow. My paternal grandparents moved to Portslade when my father was just a baby. My father lived in the town for the rest of his life. He wasn’t interested in travel, or material possessions. He was a kind and generous man, and my three siblings and I had a childhood filled with love.
I’ve particularly enjoyed looking at my father’s pen and ink drawings. These are amazingly detailed pieces of work. The drawings were done with no preparatory line work, the images simply flowed from his nib. One the last few weeks I’ve been isolating various elements from the larger drawings, and showcasing them on their own. My father would have been amazed by the technology that enable me to do this. And, I think he’d be fascinated how I can take elements from different drawings, and combine them into new artworks.
One of the challenges that I face is how to deal with the four long drawings – of which the largest is around 60 feet (by around 4ft wide)! It is filled with numerous characters. The more you look, the more you see. I think I’ll have to call in the services of a professional to capture it all properly. One of them has some delicate shading in coloured pencils, so beautifully executed.
The paintings are a riot of colour, but feature as quirky a cast of characters as the drawings. Saints and sinners, stylish women, knights, acrobats and clowns, with devils and gargoyles thrown into the mix. Here are just three. The use of symbols, patterned fabrics, candles, fruit, fish and collecting boxes are typical.
The teapot crops up in many of my father’s paintings.
When the book is finished I’ll blog about it, and in it you’ll discover the genius that my father is. He never sought fame, he wanted to exhibit his work but he wasn’t pushy, but he was a humble man.
“Drawing is my life” he said. It was.
You can also visit http://huntbach.squarespace.com
Chrissie Berridge is busy .... 