Gay Lane

On Sunday afternoon 11 November 2012, The Cartwright Gallery in Bradford staged a salon event as part of their 'Games in the Park' exhibition. Titled 'Childhood Memories of Light and Shade', the event celebrated childhood and children's games with particular reference to the picture ‘Gay Lane’ by Richard Eurich. 'Gay Lane' is part of the Cartwright Hall collection and was a centrepiece to the exhibition. Richard was born in Bradford and spent all his early life there.

Organised by Nima Poovaya-Smith the salon involved an illustrated talk by the artist’s daughters Caroline Martin and Philippa Bambach and poems performed by Rommi Smith, Adam Strickson, John Siddique & Raj ‘Silverfinger’ Matharu with vocals by Christella Litras. Other work on display was by Balraj Khanna, Tim Smith and Hashmi.

Rommi Smith's poem was titled Childhood: Another Country. She explained in an email to Philippa, "Your father's painting, Gay Lane, inspires much of the poem, but particularly, poem II in the triptych. I took inspiration from the colour and imagery of his painting. I imagined this was a street in a milling town, hence the line about spinning gold thread from shoddy cloth. This line is also a reference to the ability, I observe, of children to try make good from painful or difficult things re; the image of the drunk man being led away [ almost, off stage, I imagined] and out of the main 'scene' of the painting."