Comments on: Doreen Fletcher’s East End, Then & Now

By: Michael Ayres

Michael Ayres — Sat, 03 Sep 2016 06:29:29 +0000

Very sad to see so much character lost forever.

By: Joe

Joe — Sun, 26 Jun 2016 17:47:31 +0000

I managed to see Doreen Fletcher’s Lost Time Painting’s on the last day of the exhibition and was impressed with the quality of her Art. Her painting’s of the old East End is a record a bygone age that is now largely lost. I was born in the old East East and my Father worked in the Docks so l was eager to buy one of her Paintings but was disappointed to find all the Paintings sold. Congratulations Doreen, a Fantastic exhibition. I’m looking forward to the next one.

By: Helen

Helen — Thu, 09 Jun 2016 23:27:18 +0000

What great then and now views. Doreen’s paintings are fab!

By: Anna McGregor

Anna McGregor — Thu, 09 Jun 2016 12:43:32 +0000

The paintings so beautifully elevate mundane views. The photographic references serve to emphasise Doreen’s superb talent as a painter and colourist.

By: Gabrielle

Gabrielle — Thu, 09 Jun 2016 09:28:38 +0000

Wonderful series of amazing paintings featuring a special place in my heart, the East End. Pity so much character lost with regeneration. Struck by how ugly the yellow painted ‘boxes’ on roads are. They go uncommented on usually but road markings and street ‘furniture’ is blight on our society.More about money making businesses than safety!

By: Linda Granfield

Linda Granfield — Mon, 06 Jun 2016 13:21:08 +0000

Terrific comparisons. I like the number of trees that have been left to mature; the buildings are gone but Nature is left to add depth and detail.

Is the Limehouse Library surrounded by the blue tarps/fences because it will be demolished?
Hope not!

By: peter harrison

peter harrison — Mon, 06 Jun 2016 08:51:05 +0000

Well done to Alex Pink for documenting so precisely the sites of Doreen Fletcher’s paintings. In some ways the exercise illuminates some of the main differences between photography and painting as different, yet supporting, art forms. The poetry of Doreen’s paintings is even more poignant because the photographs show how very fragile in many cases the human presence in the urban environment can be. Very sad to see how many of the small shops have simply been wiped out, testifying to the growing anonymity of London as an urban environment.

By: Greg Tingey

Greg Tingey — Mon, 06 Jun 2016 07:16:38 +0000

Infill is my first reaction – empty spaces with new-build shoehorned into them.
Then the small shops closing.
Vanda Human is wrong though – there actually is not that much outright demolition-without-replacement ….

By: Robert

Robert — Mon, 06 Jun 2016 07:08:07 +0000

Great post. Love the before and after scenes but it proves that time has it effect upon the urban landscape as different areas are both left to decay and become gentrified.

By: Robert Green

Robert Green — Mon, 06 Jun 2016 06:50:14 +0000

When I look at these then and now comparisons I can’t really see anything that looks better now than it did then, in fact to me the vast majority of locations look much worse now, but with regard to the paintings themselves what these comparisons do emphasize is the incredible accuracy and realism of the artwork, to my eye some of these paintings are virtually indistinguishable from their photographic alternatives, the fact that this exceptional work has been virtually ignored until it started to appear on Spitalfieldslife says far more to me about the ‘false’ ‘elitest’ ‘snob ridden’ artworld than it dose about the quality of Doreen Fletcher’s incredibly talented work, in fact I would even go so far as to pose the question that if this collection of work had been the subject of anything other than largely anonymous views of East London would it still have been ignored by the art ‘establishment’ in the same way ? ? thankfully due to the efforts of the Spitalfieldslife community this wonderful collection of work will now at least get some degree of the recognition it so richly deserves, ps, I would just like to thank all the people who took the trouble to post comments on yesterdays feature on myself, thank you.