The modest former teacher, now an MBE, who taught generations of local children to love art is still creating popular pictures today in his Horwich studio.
In fact, among the glorious clutter of canvases, brushes, paints, pots, books and sketchbooks, picturesque gems of landscapes, abstracts and people regularly emerge to delight.
Gery sketching at the desk in his Horwich studio (Image: Supplied)
For Gerry, a modest man who loves his craft, this is probably where he was always destined to be.
He was born in Bolton and grew up in Blackrod where his father, an engineer, loved to paint in his spare time. “I used to watch over his shoulder so I suppose I was always used to the idea of painting,” explains Gerry.
Pivotally, his grandparents often took him and his two brothers on walks around Rivington, kickstarting a love of this lovely area which has not only stayed with him over decades but inspired some of his best-known work.
After primary school in Horwich, he went to Rivington and Blackrod High School. While he recalls that he was “not academic”, the school’s splendid setting meant that he could often “look out of the window at the birds and the countryside rather than getting on with my work!”
He enjoyed art there and gained this at GCE along with geography but he left school with no clear idea of a career and worked in a variety of jobs before deciding to do something positive.
He went to Horwich College to improve his GCE’s then on to Chorley College to take teacher training and Gerry gained a BEd (Hons) from Lancaster University.
After an initial post teaching all subjects at Hindley County Secondary School, fate stepped in and a job as an art teacher back at Rivington and Blackrod High School beckoned.
“I fitted in easily here and always enjoyed it”, remembers Gerry.
When the Head of Art position became vacant, Gerry took over that post and had 16 happy years teaching there.
By the time he had started teaching, though, Gerry was already painting regularly in his spare-time, often inspired by his beloved Rivington.
As his work became more popular, he was faced with the inevitable choice of teaching or painting, and the latter won the day.
“I was quite scared when I left,” he says, “because I had no real income coming in.
“Though I’d loved teaching – and still see pupils I taught today – I had to paint and I had to give it more time.”
From painting in his Adlington home he moved first to a small studio on a Horwich trading estate and then, more than 20 years ago, into Victoria House on Victoria Road, Horwich.
Here, he now works four days a week, spending weekends with wife Pam walking or bird-watching.
Although his landscapes helped establish his reputation as a talented artist, Gerry is equally at home with abstracts and with painting people – usually groups of people doing something.
He particularly loves the view from planes of where the sea meets the land and on flights, like the rest of his life, he keeps a sketchbook handy to create quick sketches of views that impress him.
“I’ve always loved that coming together of land and sea but I’ve taken it further now and look closely at rockpools, for example, and create abstracts from what you can see there,” he says, showing me fascinating paintings of both.
His work has travelled to many other countries across the world partly because of former pupils and their parents who commission work and spread the word.
Sometimes, these are views from their homes that they want to keep. Often, it is a favourite view of somewhere around Rivington that forms the centrepiece of these wonderful visual memories.
Not all commission are just paintings, either. “I was asked by a folk group called Tapestry based in Cornwall, which includes a former pupil who left the area more than 35 years ago, to create a view of either the Pike or the Pigeon Tower,” states Gerry.
“This was for the cover of their latest CD and they particularly liked the Pigeon Tower so it’s now on their new one.”
His talents, though, have also been acknowledged by the Manchester Academy of Fine Arts which has a very distinguished history including L S Lowry as a member. Gerry is a former President of the Academy and still a member.
He paints mainly in acrylics and is a member of the National Acrylic Painters Association but has more recently also started working in pastels.
It’s plain he loves his work “but I am always hopeful that other people will enjoy them, too.” And, plainly, they do.
·Gerry Halpin’s paintings can be seen at Framing Madness in Nortex Mill, Bolton.