Although we've got a couple of pictures by Owen Traynor I didn't know anything about him till I started to put this post together. He has his own website, which you can access here and below is an extract from that site telling you about Owen.
"Born in Ashton-u-Lyne in 1934, Owen has always lived in Dukinfield. Took an interest in drawing as soon as he could hold a pencil and the fascination with depicting the things he saw around him has never waned. Educated at St Mark's School, Dukinfield and the County Grammer School, Hyde. Began painting seriously in oils at the age of thirteen when many of his subjects were taken from local scenes and he also experimented with more decorative and abstract themes.
After National Service in the army where he served in the Canal Zone, Egypt, he took a teacher training course at Bretton Hall College of Education, near Wakefield. This was a specialist college for art teachers. From 1958 he taught art at West Hill Sc hool, Stalybridge as head of Art Department and many of his pupils have retained their interest in the subject, quite a few becoming professional artists.
Due to an eye infection he had to abandon oil painting for a while and during this period a colleague gave him a set of watercolour paints to try. He took to this most difficult medium at once and the oil he was working on remained unfinished. He never tried oils again. He retired from teaching in 1985 to devote the rest of his time to painting and has been busy ever since. He held his first one-man exhibition in 1968 and his work has been in demand since then. He was the winner of the first Glossop Pro Loco Competition. In 1985 he won the Manchester Council/Manchester Evening News Painting Competition.
Has been awarded prizes by the Society of British Painters and the British Watercolour Society. Commissions have been completed for people throughout Britain and for Greater Manchester Police, Hyperlast, Barclays Bank and Manchester University to mention a few. Reproductions of his work have been published by Felix Rosensteil's Widow and Sons, London and Portfolio Fine Art, Manchester. His work was selected many times for the Laing Competition and he was presented with the Yorkshire Television Award for Painting."
These are the two pictures which we have have for several years:
4 comments:
Compared to the Grimshaw drwings that you showed the other day, this is art.
Wow, these are gorgeous paintings, I would love to be able to paint like that!
We have 2 original Owen Traynors.
One of St Georges from 1983 (I think) and one of Pole Bank from 1980.
Both beautiful paintings.
He is one of Tamesides very talented artists.
Owen is still painting and has exhibitions at Ashton Library. I sent in a picture of his in October showing Ashford in the Water. Much of his work is of the local area and his water colours are beautiful.
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