For many years now my wife and I have always loved walking in Delph, Dobcross and the beautiful surrounding countryside. We would always stop for a bite to eat and a cup of tea at Edna’s Café in King Street, Delph. We had known for a few years about the artist studio and gallery that was above the café and we had always admired the paintings that were on show in the café. However it was only recently that we discovered that the artist came from the Harpurhey area of Manchester. A local lad who had made good in the artistic world and therefore a good story for our local magazine.
John McCombs was born in the December of 1943 at no. 20 Ventnor Street, near Conran Street market. His father was also from that area, his mother was from Castleford, a Yorkshire lassie.
He now lives in Greenfield, (known locally as the buffer zone between Lancashire and Yorkshire) with his partner Sheila. Sheila has two daughters Philippa and Catherine, both of whom are now married.
John started school at Alfred Street School in Harpurhey. It was here that his talent for painting was first spotted by his art teacher, Jim Callaghan. Unfortunately John failed his first entrance exam to the Manchester High School of Art because of his poor results in Maths and English. The result of this made him have a good cry. However Mr Callaghan told him not to worry and contacted the Art School and within a week John had received a letter asking him to go to the Art School to sit the Art exam. John went and painted a picture of a corner shop in Harpurhey. The name of the shop was Kale’s, it was a grocers/greengrocers and stood on the corner of Ventnor Street.
John passed the exam with flying colours and can’t praise
Mr Callaghan enough, it was he who encouraged him and gave him the will to carry
on.
John attended Manchester High School of Art for five years.
He later spent a further five years at St Martin’s School
of Art in London. It was while attending St Martin’s that he won an annual
competition.
Apparently artists who won this competition usually went to Paris to start off
their careers. Guess what? John decided to go to Oldham and start his professional
career! I suppose there isn’t much difference between Oldham and Paris!
Johns’ paintings of the local countryside ensured he
became quite well known in the locality in fact the BBC did a sixteen minute
documentary about him, which was called “An Artist his Environment”.
This made him even more well known in the North West and also nationally.
John is now a member of the Royal Institute of Oil Painters, and The Royal Society of British Artists. He likes to paint a visual record of the village of Delph and the countryside around. I can’t blame him for that because the scenery is absolutely fantastic.
The last question I put to John was “What’s your ambition?” His answer was “To get better and better”.
So now you know a little bit about this brilliant painter.
All you have to do is to get on your bikes and get to Delph and have a natter
with the Ar’prey Artist.
