It was an idea inspired by a hit movie based in America's mid-west. Works of art which capture the changing landscape of Stockport have been blown up in size for all to see instead of being hidden in a gallery or private collection. Artist Helen Clapcott has been painting the town where she was raised from the age of ten for decades. Her work can now sell in galleries for tens of thousands of pounds.
The 2017 film, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri, a dark comedy starring Frances McDormand, was the trigger for presenting her work in different way. In the movie a mother rents three billboards and emblazons them with black lettering to comment on the failure police to solve a disturbing crime.
Now three billboards in Wellington Street near to Robinson's brewery have been used to display enlarged versions of original paintings by Helen. "I was walking in the area and saw three big empty billboards and thought 'I could stick something up on those'. The idea was triggered by the film - the sight of forlorn, empty billboards during lock-down and a desire to see my small paintings enlarged, said Helen.
The paintings: Dog and Tyres, originally a 22 by 30 centimetres work; The Last Carnival (40 by 50 ); and The Last of Stockport Paper Mill (41 by 61) have each been enlarged to fill the billboards. "I have sold two of the originals but still have The Last Carnival. They went up last week and will be up for another three weeks," said Helen.
The Last of Stockport Paper Mill depicts the demolition of one of the great landmarks of the town, now replaced by a retail park. The Last Carnival, from 2018, depicts an annual march up the A6 which was a mix of floats, majorettes, bands and "daft costumes". Dog and Tyres is real scene in which a little dog was left to guard a huge mound of tyres amongst disused derelict mills.
"I sent a PDF of each of the paintings to Marketing Stockport and got them enlarged properly. It's nice to see them blown up. It's fun." Her children, Peggy, and Arnold make a video to go with the works.
Helen was born in Blackpool in 1952 then moved as a young girl to Stockport. She graduated from the Royal Academy Schools in 1978 but was lured back to the post-industrial landscape of the north of England, especially around her home town of Stockport. She says she paints a town "intent on erasing all evidence of its industrial heritage and replacing it with sprawling carparks, service areas, and an anonymous commuter drive-thru."
Why does she paint Stockport? "It's a visual feast. A red sandstone valley, the sun bouncing over the Cheshire plain. Where two rivers (The Goyt and The Tame) meet and the Mersey begins. A skyline of chimneys, towers, and mills, stalked by demolition squads. There is the iconic viaduct bridging the valley, the motorway snaking east and west through the middle of the town, and the power station that took a year to demolish," said Helen, who now lives in Macclesfield.
"I can't find a way to do new buildings. They will feature in a landscape - like The Pyramid - but it is the narrative of a scene I focus on. The roads winding in and out, the square boxes on the hillside, the bus station under construction, cranes and diggers dancing in the rubble, workers carrying planks of wood."
The critic, Andrew Lambirth, said of her work: "If Lowry first opened our eyes to the beauties of the industrial scene, Clapcott is chronicling its last chapter, the decay and fall of a great cityscape." Helen paints in tempera directly onto gesso panels. Tempera is powder pigment bound with egg yolk; it dilutes with water.
Helen mixes fresh paints each day. One of the advantages of tempera, says Helen, is that one can erase and repaint the panel. Her paintings evolve over months, as they’re altered, revised, and reworked.
Helen has also painted the home of Stockport County, Edgeley Park. As the club inches towards promotion back to the Football League, and enlargement of one of her paintings of the ground may well help celebrate the season if the right billboard can be found.
