Snow in Victoria Street, Brierley Hill

Oil painting

The scene is a typical Black Country street in winter, with rows of red-brick terraced houses, telegraph poles, and the factory chimney looming at the end of the road, belching forth steam.

The colours are muted, with greys, blues and whites suggesting the snow of the season. Warmth is present in the slash of yellow on the factory wall, and in the red of the buildings, which are painted in an impressionist style, as are the figures - mere hints of people, blending into the landscape. It may remind the spectator of L.S. Lowry, another chronicler of the everyday, where the human figures are faceless, almost unimportant, in the perhaps oppressive urban surroundings.

This painting is one of our Ray Jones collection.