May 10, 2023

Expressing a vision of history

The History Behind the Painting

Market gardening was a significant industry back in the 19th and 20th century in the Vale of Evesham. It was famously renowned for its rich, fertile soils of orchards and plots for growing fruit and vegetables, such as apple and plum orchards and tasty, juicy asparagus.

My late Grandad was part of a family market gardening business back in the day called V G Keyte and Sons. They rented land behind the Lygon Arms carpark in Broadway, fields by the Warwickshire and Gloucestershire Steam Train bridge in Broadway and land owned by the church between Broadway and Childswickham.

Sadly, I never met my Great Grandad or Great Uncle, so I only knew of my Grandad working the land on his own. Back in the 80s and 90s, he would rise early, cycling from his home in Broadway to Childswickham, as he didn’t drive back then. Days were long and he worked six to seven days a week. He’d cycle home for a fry up for mid-morning, a cooked meal at lunchtime and supper in the evening. In-between all those meals, he would be working the land - no wonder he looked so trim with all that physical exercise.

I loved visiting Grandad on the land. Just off the country road, I remember a long, metal gate which led to a rough track, which went over a brook. The brook was his source of irrigation, which he had permission to use obtaining a water licence. To the left of the track located rough, dark and cold wooden sheds (also known as Hovels), long, glass greenhouses, which housed tomatoes and a field located behind the ‘glass.’ Opposite these worn structures was another huge field where he grew seasonal crops like leeks, asparagus, potatoes, runner beans, carrots, cauliflower and brassicas. Further down the track was another shed, this time belonging to gentleman known as Jim. There, lived lots of wild cats. To any cat lovers out there, they were all very adorable especially the kittens, but with some fear, I watched their playful yet dominating activity from a distance as being wild and feral meant they could potential act as a lion! Being young, I didn’t want to get hurt or get into trouble.

My Great Grandad wasn’t interested in ‘glass’ as he called it, however my Grandad took a keen interest, investing in it. His risk worked, making his money back within a year. Growing tomatoes under the glass, he became scientific and worked out how to bring the crops on quicker by creating inner greenhouses using heavy duty poly. Additionally, he created irrigation in the greenhouses creating almost like monsoon type conditions. This meant his crops were out a few weeks earlier than other market gardeners, which earned him more money. Initially, he bought in tomato plugs but they began to get expensive so he resulted to sowing seeds.

Grandad grew ‘gras’ as us locals call asparagus. To anyone that lives or knows the Vale of Evesham, asparagus grown here is the vegetable that is world renowned for its taste and texture. With the short season from the 21st April to the 23rd June, I certainly can’t get enough it this tasty stem. It is my favourite vegetable. To this day I am unsure of the varieties the Keytes’ grew but I am aware that my Great Grandad may have produced his own variety. Furthermore, I’ve been told that he exported seeds to South America. They entered many competitions and sent a round of ‘gras’ to the Chelsea Flower Show. When clearing out my Grandad house after he passed away, we found trophies, certificates and photographs from the 60s and 70s, showing the success of their ‘gras’ in shows and competitions.

After he passed away in 2018, Explore the Past, an archaeological team in Worcestershire were after information about market gardeners in the area as they wanted to keep the history alive as so many gardeners were sadly passing. I was honoured that I was able to give the team lots of information, so Keytes’ legacy will live on alongside many other market gardening families who have contributed in the area. More information about Explore the Past can be found here.

The Planning and Process of the Painting

As an artist, I wanted to express a vision of history and celebrate Grandad’s achievements in his career of market gardening through a painting.

Firstly, I obtained a photograph of my Grandad. However being in black and white (which is fabulous for knowing the values) I wanted to paint the piece in colour, so the photograph was digitally scanned and then it was changed in an App to create a coloured photograph.

Using my knowledge of composition, adjustments to the photograph were made, so it became a mix of a wheel and cross composition. As I wanted my Grandad’s face to be in the centre of interest, this meant I needed to add additional sky and extend the width to the left side of the photograph.

Using the coloured photograph, I instantly knew that the colour palette would be analogous, using mainly desaturated or pale colours of blues, greens and yellows. I created colour mixes of the colours, so I knew which colours I was going to use as I painted.

I decided to paint on a smooth Winsor and Newton canvas, so I could get finer, smoother paint strokes without the texture of the canvas coming through. With the love of the buttery texture, I used Golden Heavy Body acrylic paint to create the piece.

I created a three by three grid on the photographs and the canvas, which gave basic compositional guidelines for sketching the outlines of the composition.

When applying the paint, I blocked the acrylic in sections. To do this I looked at each section of the photograph in depth, finding the dark (or light) colours under the layers. I slowly build up the detail, adjusting the values, colours and brush sizes accordingly.