Born in Sheffield 1949, the son of a railwayman, Ted left school at 15 without any qualifications. Ted quickly developed a keen interest in photography and managed to save up to buy a camera in 1966. With his love of railways combined with photography, Ted was able to photograph the last days of steam.
Ted’s professional big break came in February 1969, when he became an Industrial Scientific Photographer for British Steel Research and Technical Laboratories, a role he continued to work in for 21 years.
In the late 1970s, Ted began to paint in oils. He was delighted to win first prize in an art competition run by Yorkshire Television in 1976. He then joined the ‘Guild of Railway Artists’ and aspired to get a painting accepted for the 1980 ‘Rail art’ exhibition at the National Railway Museum, York. However, it wasn’t for Ted at the time and after a couple of years, his membership of the GRA lapsed.
Ted met his wife to be in 1973 and they got married in 1975 on September 27, the 150th anniversary of the opening of the Stockton & Darlington Railway.
With steam being allowed back onto the main line from 1973 and a job move to Teesside in 1977, Ted became an active volunteer with both the North Eastern Locomotive Preservation Group and the North Yorkshire Moors Railway.
In 1989, Ted set up his own video production business, and painting took a back seat. However, in 2007, Ted spent some time working on a film with artist David Shepherd, who encouraged Ted to put brush to canvas again. Ted had no formal training, but followed his instincts. He held his first solo exhibition in 2018 at the Station Gallery in Richmond, North Yorkshire. Ted rejoined the GRA and was accepted as a full member in 2024.
In Ted’s words:
“Not bad for an unqualified scruffy urchin from Sheffield that left school wi’ nowt!”
Malcolm studied art at school in the early 1970's and his first paintings reflected his interests at the time in motor sport and aircraft. He then moved onto motorcycles and cars. Malcolm’s paintings of cars received lots of interest, and was commissioned in 1978 for a Jensen CV8. Since then, Malcolm’s artwork has gone around the world and has covered many of the major marques, from modern to vintage.
Malcolm originally painted with water based acrylic, but due to a number of requests for more ‘scenic’ based work, he started experimenting with watercolour and found this to be very much to his liking, becoming his medium of choice. After moving over to watercolour, Malcolm’s work and subsequent commissions expanded beyond the automotive sphere into the likes of trams, buses, trolleybuses, maritime, people and many other rail based subjects.
In the early 2000’s, he became a member of the Guild of Motoring Artists. In October 2019 he became an Associate Member of the Guild of Railway Artists. In March 2021 during the ‘Covid’ pandemic the UK based ‘The Artist’ magazine ran a series of monthly competitions, each with a theme. One month the theme was ‘Silence’ and Malcolm’s watercolour of an abandoned Ex AMTRAK EMD 9a locomotive was chosen as winner. In 2021 one of Malcolm’s paintings was chosen to be included in the Newcastle Upon Tyne based Gallagher & Turner Fine Art Gallery’s open exhibition. In October 2022 Malcolm became a Full Member of the Guild of Railway Artists, after judgement by a panel of his peers.
John was born in Surrey. John initially trained in horticulture, then spent three years in the RAF and two years working with Ilford Films in Brentwood, before joining ICI on Teesside, where he worked for 27 years.
John has been fascinated by transport all his life, with a particular interest in railways. He enjoyed painting as a hobby, and after encouragement from family and colleagues, he attended evening classes in art at Hartlepool College.
John had his first solo exhibition at the Gray Art Gallery in Hartlepool in 1970, and many exhibitions have followed since. John has spent time as ‘Artist in Residence' on the QE2 and at the National Railway Museum in the past. John is an elected full member of the Guild of Railway Artists.
John is a regular visitor to Locomotion, often drafting and painting from life on site.
