"How did L.S. Lowry represent the environment in which he lived?"

In order to begin to answer this, I choose to quote Lowry himself: 

j “I just painted what I saw – or the way I saw it, and what I wanted to paint.” Lowry, quoted from ‘Lowry’ by Julian Spalding

This quote is quite an appropriate way to begin this analysis, as it reflects well, in my opinion, how Lowry pictured his local environment and others around him. Lowry, who is perhaps best known for his industrial scenes of northern England and his ‘match-stalk’ images of people, is not seen by many to have much skill as a realist painter.

Lowry painting

However, I take the view that Lowry has captured the atmosphere of this era well, and for this reason remains one of my favourite artists. This is why, although I will look at other artists, I have chosen to use Lowry as the central artist in my project.   

 k“I am not an artist, I’m just a man who paints.” Lowry, quoted from ‘Lowry’ by Julian Spalding

In order to analyse Lowry’s techniques, I will also look at other artists that link in closely with him, comparing and contrasting styles with regards to, amongst other things colour schemes, subjects and brush techniques. I will first look at the Impressionist movement, which influenced Lowry in many ways, comparing his art to work by Claude Monet, and to French Romanticist Eugene Delacroix, who to a certain extent influenced the Impressionist movement.

I will then go on to examine more closely the scales, colours and materials that Lowry used in his most famous works, before linking his art to that of J Lawrence Isherwood, a modern Expressionist and Impressionist painter with a similar style.

To finish off, I will take a closer look at a selection of Lowry’s works which I feel demonstrate well some of Lowry’s favoured techniques. Through this, I hope to gain a wider knowledge of Lowry’s thoughts which he demonstrated in his paintings, in my opinion, so well.