BLACK FROST [A narrative painting by John A.

Walker]

A. G. Beeden (6U) Copyright 1957

John A. Walker, Black Frost, (1956-57), oil on canvas, installed in the lobby of

Wintringham Boys Grammar School, Grimsby. Present whereabouts unknown.

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The oil painting by John Walker in the school vestibule was inspired by the tragic

loss with all hands of the ‘Rodrigo’ and ‘Larolla’ [Grimsby trawlers, fishing vessels]

in January 1956, owing to the action of vhat is known as ‘black frost’ [in Artic
waters spray caused ice to form on the superstructures which in turn caused the

trawlers to overturn in bad weather; see House of Commons account

http://www.theyworkforyou.com/debates/?id=1956-05-16a.2170.0 ]. The great

difficulty in painting on such a long canvas is to provide a sufficient number of

points of interest while maintaining an overall unity of thought and design. Having

decided on his theme, the artist has had four main ‘ideas’: (1) the courage and

strength of' the fishermen, (2) the loneliness of the wives and children left at home;

(3) the plunging ship and struggling, drowning seamen, (4) the women and children

being left desolate - possibly flashing into the minds of the men as they die.

One must not expect to be able to read off from left to right a complete sequence

of events. The artist is not a camera, nor is he presenting a strip cartoon. Nor must

one expect the shape of faces and trees and ships to be quite as you or I would see

them. The artist is using form to speak as you or I would use words. The central

pair of fishermen cry out ‘here is strength, solidity, courage’. The woman on the left

is alone with her babe and lonely (look at the flatness of her face), the angel above

her slinks off, Judas-like, having betrayed her trust. (He reminds me of the Treens

Dan Dare met in the days when I read the "Eagle".)

To the right of the central figures there is an area of confused, forms which for

me is the weakest part of the picture. In the right centre the halved sun shines down

onto the plunging ship and the men dive overboard into the tossing sea. In the

extreme right there is the balancing flash-back to the figure on the extreme left.

For me the painting, as it stands, has been successful in that it has aroused in me

sympathetic emotion. My main criticism of it when put under the title "Black
Frost" is that nowhere - except perhaps in the sun - do I got any sense of coldness -

the overall colour impression is, indeed, pink. The sinking ship is rather uncertain

but that is a minor point and I think that the artist has largely succeeded in his

difficult task of maintaining interest and cohesion.

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This review essay was written by a sixth form pupil of Wintringham Boys Grammar

School in the school’s magazine Argus, Vol 2, no. 5, May 1957, p. 10.

Photo of the artist aged 18 taken in Autumn 1956 when he was an art student in

Newcastle upon Tyne. The painting was executed in an attic room in Jesmond. It

was commissioned by his ex-art teacher Ernest Worrell and Walker was paid only

the cost of materials.

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