Gilbert Daykin - the miner artist

This blog entry contains my poem "A Special Light" about Gilbert Daykin, a miner who created very striking paintings of mines and colliers, perhaps the most striking being “Symbolic: the Miner Enslaved” (1938) reminiscent of images of Christ and of the chained Prometheus.

Symbolic: A Miner Enslaved (1938)

Perhaps the most poignant one for me is "The Tub: At the end of the coalface" (1934) which was painted the year before my Great Uncle Jim Hooper was killed doing exactly what this miner is doing:

The Tub: At the end of the coalface (1934)

These are in the permanent collection at the Science Museum along with several others donated by a relative in 1978.

Daykin was born in Barnsley but later moved to Derbyshire and worked in pits around the Notts/Derby border. His other work included paintings of the Welbeck Estate which brought him to the attention of the family there and helped raise his profile. He was never able to leave the mines and was in constant fear of the danger it brought - in the end this proved justified and he was killed at Warsop Colliery in December 1939.

You can read more about Gilbert Daykin here.


A Special Light

Home from the mine -
back-breaking, hard and dirty shift;
fireside tub to rinse the dust
while in your memory
the images remain
imprinted, burnt,
as the blackness is washed away.
Impatient for your paints and brushes,
memories transferred
from brain to canvas.

Yellow-white glow of lamp
shines on blackened muscle,
straining in its labour,
heavy boot on stony floor.

You, a miner, and miner's son,
spat out of school at just thirteen
imagine with both eyes and soul.
Dignitaries laud you
and a duchess receives but
you are never allowed to fly the
fearful pull of the grim black hole.

A miner enslaved but
with a burning desire for art;
bending to his work
with shovel and brush;
breathing in dust then
breathing life into
inanimate oil and colour.

As war clouds gathered and
the skies thundered above
a roof was falling below
and you, Gilbert Daykin,
would daub no more.
A special light, illuminating the
pitch-black of mining history,
dimmed that night
but the shining talent
will never be extinguished.

Gilbert Daykin 1886-1939

(c) Tim Fellows 2017

All images are owned by the Science Museum and are published under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 Licence

"Symbolic: A Miner Enslaved" at the Science Museum 

 "The Tub - at the end of the coalface" at the Science Museum

 

Hotel Chelsea Project - The Four Seasons Room

The short story below is the back story for a tiny piece of art I contributed as part of a community art project in Mexborough. Each person would contribute one window. Here is mine:

This is the full hotel

The Four Seasons Room

The old man had been in the hotel room longer than most of the staff could remember. He always told them it helped him make new friends among the staff and guests. People wondered how he paid for it all but no bill was ever missed; some said he had been famous at one time but few seemed to know what for.

Recently he had been increasingly confined and had a series of nurses and carers permanently installed in an adjoining room. Rather than wandering the corridors and lounges he mainly stayed in the room, in bed or in his wheelchair reading or observing the world through his window.

One day in early spring he requested soft pastels of all colours and a pad of artists paper. He would spend time at the window, mainly thinking, but occasionally working. As the year went on his health deteriorated but he continued with his drawing. As New Year followed Christmas he called his nurse over and said “I've finished – get my lawyer”.

The meeting was set up and completed. A week later the old man was gone. A few weeks later the lawyer came to the hotel and asked to speak to the owner – the owner was called and, after the conclusion of the meeting, emerged looking pale and shocked, unable to speak. Eventually the Maitre D, who had known the owner longest, got the story.

The artist was indeed famous and had produced no new work since an abrupt retirement in 1985. The four expensive, much sought after, pastels he had produced had been bequeathed to the hotel on condition that the window in his room was altered to be a stained glass representation of his works – one for each season of the final year of his life. Thus was born The Four Seasons Room, named for the now celebrated Four Seasons pastels that spent most of their life on loan to collections around the world - but whose sisters could always be seen by everyone who walked past the hotel - second to top floor, second window from the right.

Symbiosis

Inspired by "Giants Refreshed: Pacifics in the Doncaster Locomotive Works" by Terence Tenison Cuneo (1907–1996) in Doncaster Museum and Art Gallery

You can see the painting here

Symbiosis

"Interaction between two different organisms living in close physical association, typically to the mutually beneficial relationship between different people or groups."





The beast is sleeping;
Awesome even in its silence.
Gleaming in the light
while tiny creatures prink and clean
its accumulated detritus.
Venturing where none may dare
when the beast is awake
to prepare it for its circadian prowl.
They are symbiotic, co-dependent;
Cleaners and oilers,greasers and painters;
obligated and phoretic.

Refreshed, it eases into the open,
fire blazing, pressure building,
slowly rising from its slumber.
Hissing as it glides so smoothly,
lazy pistons like muscles stretching
unaware of their impending fury.
The beast makes its payment,
hosts carried in its wake
as it gorges greedily on the dark fodder
shoveled in its gaping maw;
Speed building, air rushing,
vapour trailing, rails screaming.
Small creatures stand aside as the beast,
pacific blue shining,
roars past; in awe and wonder as it
disappears
into
the
distance

Glossary: