Artists walks down memory lane
An artist is taking viewers back to the streets of their past in a new exhibition.
Industrial Staffordshire has been recaptured by Matt Sayers, complete with its pitheads and blanket of smoke.
Matt, 37, from Cannock, wants to help people reminisce with his new exhibition called Looking Back, which is on display at the Ancient High House in Stafford.
His landscape oil paintings capture the daily lives of working class people around local streets in the 1950s to 1970s.
They are full of terraced houses with fires lit, people huddled around chip shops and children playing in the streets.
Some of the streets are painted from his imagination but others will be recognisable from Cannock, Rugeley and Stafford.
He said: "It's all about the days gone by. I like to paint exhibitions where people say I remember when and can reminisce about where houses used to be and what the streets look like now.
"I like to bring people to life on the streets with little details such as what they are wearing like the working class flat cap with a donkey jacket.
"It's the change of working life then compared to now which is what I like. Everyone all had big black jackets, flatcaps and neck scarves and plodded off to one location to do the job they would've done for years and that would have followed on from their father."
"I will have some people talk to me about the streets and what they remember from them which is really rewarding."
Mr Sayers is a warehouse manager by day but by the evening he loves to paint and wants to pursue art full time.
He started painting and school and found his own style by oil painting when he was in his early 20s and he was asked to paint dogs and pets for people who admired his work.
He started displaying his work publicly seven years ago and his current exhibitions are on at The Studio on Bird Street in Lichfield along with others in Stoke-on-Trent and Worcester.
Entry is free to the exhibition at the high house on Greengate Street in Stafford that opened on November 21 and will go on until December 31.
For information on exhibiting artwork at the venue called 01785 619 131.
