I am a lover of most paintings. One of our northern home-grown painters was Lowry, whose portrayal of the Salford and Manchester area over the years still fascinates me. It isn't his matchstick men that fascinates me, but more the scenes he never hardly painted that is peculiar to Manchester, more than any other city in the land.
Isn't it strange that given Manchester is renown for receiving the most bountiful of rainfalls each year, that from the hundreds of paintings that Lowry did, only one, 'The bus stop' depicts rain? Also, the figures in it are more lifelike than his matchstick men and dogs. It touches the height of my curiosity as to why such a Mancunian experience should be deliberately omitted from a lifetime of scenes from Salford and Manchester, and even makes me wonder if he had a second paid job with the Manchester Tourist Board? Let's face it, we all need a second job from time to time to get by!" William Forde: April 25th, 2018.