The place to see the work of one of the country’s most flamboyant and in-demand landscape artists, Danny Abrahams, is the Abrahams’ Gallery, in Haworth. Feast your eyes on one of his glorious sunsets and be instantly smitten. No-one captures the ‘golden moment’ quite like him.
The gallery is run by his sister, Vicky, but on a visit you might run into this great original talent, who exhibits throughout the UK and has dedicated fans not only here but as far away as America and Australia.
The paintings on display are a mixture of local scenes and ‘dreamscapes’, romantically idealised visions the product of his imagination. They are all different but all definitively, vividly, magically ‘Abrahams’, as he is known in the trade! They have a whimsical nostalgic quality that seems to chime with a modern mood which is gaining in strength.
It’s astonishing to discover that this most accomplished of painters did not actually train as an artist. He is completely self taught and living proof of the old adage great artists are born not made.
“The reason why I paint as I do and don’t conform to the book and art experts is because I like to create in the moment and find my own path as I go along and do it my way,” he asserts, proudly. “I’ve never had a lesson in my life.”
By’eck! It’s an uphill struggle – Haworth Main Street(Image: )
This is the amazing success story of how a man who had never held a paint brush in his hand became an artist virtually overnight aged 30 – after his wife, Danielle, bought him a set of acrylics on spec. As down to earth and unpretentious as anybody you will ever meet, he still finds it hard to believe how it happened.
In his youth, growing up in Wibsey and attending Yorkshire Martyrs, he always wanted to be a footballer – a dashing left winger. That was before he decided that being a rock star, the rhythm guitarist, backing vocalist and songwriter for popular Bradford Indie band Hoover Dams, was his life’s ambition.
He laughs and shakes his head at a private thought. The band did well, played gigs in all the Indie clubs, even scooped the top prize on a national television talent show. “I guess when I got to about 30, I realised it was never going to happen,” he smiles. “Luckily, I discovered a talent I never knew I had.”
Warmth Beyond the Rain – Dreamscape(Image: )
At the time he was packing away his guitar, never to be touched again, he was taking up his brushes – and has not put them down since. By the time he was 32 he’d decided to give up his job (with a Leeds’ company specialising in lighting) against the advice of gallery owners who clamoured for his work yet knew how difficult it was to make it as a professional artist. “I never looked back,” he says, “And I always had confidence in myself.” It was not misplaced and soon he had a fully stocked order book of commissions.
“I bought some books on how to do it but realised it was better for me just to get on with it, invent my own techniques, rather than apply other people’s.”
Having said that, he takes inspiration from a variety of works, from a modern traditional landscape artist like David Dipnall to the lavish sweeping vistas of Albert Bierstadt, the 19th-century German American.
He works spontaneously, sometimes feverishly, calming himself down slightly by listening to classical music. Making light of the process, he speaks of “squirting” oils on the palette in colours selected to match the mood of the moment.
A Passage Through Time – Bronte Bridge(Image: )
He doesn’t make preliminary sketches but will occasionally work from photographs to fulfill commissions. He uses a fine brush to paint the outlines onto square boards primed with his choice of base colour.
“The underpainting gives the scene its inner glow and I always start from the middle and work outwards. I don’t mess about. I just get stuck in and find it naturally flows.” He gives it some thought. “It’s a bit like driving, once you’ve learnt how to do it, you do it automatically.”
Wuthering Heights – Top Withens(Image: )
Because oils take time to dry, he normally has three or four to work on. “When one’s finished, I leave it to mature for a few weeks and then come back to it and see it with a fresh eye.”
It’s true to say his work is always lyrical, full of nostalgia, aspiration, love, sentiment. We find all these qualities on display in a snow-strewn Haworth or down a poppy-filled lane under moonlight, boy and girl together. See them in the children gazing longingly into the village sweet shop, by lamplight – or in the young lad trudging up Main Street, wheeling his bike.
Choosing sweeties on Haworth Main Street(Image: )
A frosty Top Withens under a golden sky, or again in a purpling twilight, or Brontë Bridge nearby when the heather is in bloom take you in search of the perfect moment, reflecting emotions that ordinary people can relate to.
If you haven’t yet discovered the great Danny Abrahams, the landscape artist guaranteed to give you the ‘feel good glow, get yourself up to Haworth.
* Would you like to recommend a Bradford artist for Andrew to interview and include in his series? If so, please email emma.clayton@nqyne.co.uk