Early Years Inspiration – Let There Be Doug
To begin the story properly we, Mum and I (Dad was called up into the armed service) lived in Albany Road (Walthamstow, London), which was two rows of small terrace houses. Opposite our house, to the right, was the Silver’s home.
Tom who walked around in constant pain from a wound from WWI, Dennis (Denny) who was my age (give or take) and Mrs. Silver, Dolly, who liked a drink now and then at the Common Gate Pub on the corner of Queens Road.
Dolly Silver. The Inspiration For This Painting
Dolly was a friend of my Mum, who didn’t like to drink anywhere much. Well, we went through the war mostly unscathed apart from the occasional firebomb, one landing on the doorstep.
On one occasion, while running for cover after the ominous cut-out of the droning motor during a V1 air raid, we finished up sheltering in the Gentleman’s Toilets at a local pub, meeting an indignant customer coming out. After a rapid explanation, he turned on his heels and invited us in!
*In the painting artist Doug Kemp with an aunt, Blits years 1944 Walthamstow, London
So World War 2 ended and the drab colours of life continued much the same, until one day in the very late 1940s or early 1950s, I went out of our front door and naturally looked across to Dolly’s and got a SHOCK that was like a physical bang;
Dolly’s new curtains were bright turquoise with red, yellow and black abstract shapes on them, much like stuff shown at the Festival of Britain.
Shocked, it was the very first time I had been properly introduced to colour and colour has been with me ever since. I still get a warm glow whenever I think of that day, Thank you, Dolly. Doug Kemp
