I packed up driving for a living after 20 years, early 1980s. I decided to try making a living from painting lorries instead of driving them. So, fast forward to 2016 when I’ve managed to make the living, with a bit more time on my hands I did a picture for Coll - of us on a similar trip we had, four drops – for Chard Junction, Moretonhampstead, Tavistock and Croyde Bay, but a more modern version. A bit fanciful you might say but the road and its memories won’t let me go. Loaded with plasterboards we were on our way to our third drop, down to a school at Tavistock needing a refurb. In the painting the lorry is a Hino 700 which I rate as a looker, a good working lorry, a bit like an Atki. - stylish but no frills!

When I was on the Long Distance, Colleen my wife sometimes came on trips with me, but not that often. The painting “Windwhistle”, below was made in 2013, using Flashe Vinyl paints, and matted behind glass, inside a Hemlock frame. It shows us two on one of those journeys. We are going by the fog bound Windwhistle Pub, late July, on the old A30 between Crewkerne and Chard, in Somerset. The road is no longer open to Lorries. We did a lot of work to the West of England, often along the A30 or A303. Rochester to Honiton was a day’s work. You knew all about it at the end of the day, especially in the summer! Four drops of Gyproc Plasterboard in Devon and Cornwall, plus return load, took all week. Harder work, slower pace.

I used a more recent photo of Merrivale Bridge. The road there hasn’t changed much from the new by-pass days. Instead of the white Atkinson, a more modern (2010) light blue Hino 700 was put in. So, the Lorry colour is in my “Sunbeam Blue”. The Sky and Background colours follow the lorry’s livery, either to enhance it, or as a contrast to set it off. A few details to note for the lorry- it has the same fleet no. and reg. no. as the best one of the Atkinsons I drove there. An Atkinson style ribbon with the Knight of the Road Emblem on the front, some red lining out, Chevron bumper, New Zealand Style mirrors, and, well, it has to be ropes and sheets, of course! The Header board has the plain Arnold’s style Signwriting. Coll and me are in the cab, as we are nowadays, a couple of old fogeys!

MERRIVALE BRIDGE DARTMOOR

Memories of 50 years ago- coming down to Merrivale Bridge, Dartmoor, not in a Hino, but an Atkinson. We’d delivered to Unigate at Chard Junction, and to MoretonHampstead. We were on our way to our next drop at Tavistock. I often wish we could do those few delivery trips we had together all over again. It’s not to be, so this is the only way to make it happen – a PAINTING! – but us two as we are today, and with a modern take on the old Atki. 

"A Painting is the most beautiful of Lies"  - Kees van Dongen Painter 1877-1968

Mostly it was British scenes, approx. 1100 in all and especially from Scotland where there was a big interest. Full-on non-stop hard work, 7 days a week a lot of the time, but I paced myself, never taking on time schedules. So, interesting work, a real pleasure to do. Often working with 30 - 40 commissions ahead, which we’d deliver on trips, or at rallies. That in turn would lead to more orders - so I was always the Jobbing Painter.

As for the rest of the Roadscapes pictures - scenes of the road from far and wide – I was painting these to order, for a living, from 1984 till 2024 - but the very first lorry pic. was made in about 1960 of an AEC. The title was - “Night Trunker”

“English Road A74” Mean Ge-reen Maudslay Meritor Machine, from D.M.Smith, of Wishaw. “O” type Bedford following. Heading South on what the Scotsmen used to call the English Road.

“Paddy’s Milestone” Ostwald’s of Ayr AEC on the A77, near Girvan.

“A Dream on 6 wheels” Scottish Albion from J G Barrack, Aberdeen. Near Otterburn.

The final lorry painting was “Y Cymro”/ “The Welshman”. Painted in 2023-4 of an O.J.Jones Renault, 8-wheeled Tipper, from Porthmadog North Wales, set at Dolwyddelan, A470, with the Castle in the background. Class Cruiser or what!

“High Voltage” – I’m hoping to paint a full-scale version of this plan that was made back in 2000. It’s of an 8 wheeled Scania mixer lorry, set in the West of Ireland, on a stormy night. 

Another painting, a Foden cab interior which I thought was finished - “Day’s End” - is needing a slight alteration. I’ll tell you about it one of the days. Check the Paintings gallery - with ongoing changes, and some from way back, when we only managed to get a few photographed, e.g. “Ffordd Yr Arfordir”/ Coastal Road. Painted in 1989. Most of the gallery pics. are more recent, from about 2000, when they all started going onto disc.

ROADSCAPES - for the future

One on the go right now - not a Lorry painting, but definitely a Roadscape – I recognise it! An illustration for a poem written in about 1912, of a Travelling Showman who is on his way to another Fair. He meets a roadside Traveller who asks him how things are doing. It was in a book of poems from the1920s, with pictures for some of them by Harry Clarke, the Dublin Stain Glass artist, who was a fantastic Colourist. He didn’t do one for this poem. Maybe not quite up his street. But it’s right up mine. So give it a try! A bit of a challenge, what with all the Decoration and detailing. Fingers Xed!   Will keep you posted