Comments on: Doreen Fletcher’s First East End Paintings

By: Mike Nadin

Mike Nadin — Wed, 06 Feb 2019 16:22:09 +0000

I bought Doreen’s book after seeing some of her paintings shown on the BBC website. The book arrived today and I could not be more delighted. I am a VERY amateur artist, but could not help being incredibly impressed by her paintings of the East Eand. They very much reminded me of Edward Hopper who is one of my all time favourites. This is not to denigrate your work in the slightest Doreen, rather I hope you take it as a real compliment. Keep painting!

By: Pauline Cooper

Pauline Cooper — Thu, 24 Jan 2019 01:55:39 +0000

I have just seen the painting of Plaistow Railway Station and was wondering if it was possible to get a print of this? Or is it too soon for prints to be produced for resale.

Kind regards.
Pauline Cooper
Sydney Australia (although born and bred in Plaistow)

By: Nicholas Sack

Nicholas Sack — Tue, 23 Oct 2018 10:32:28 +0000

It’s fascinating to gain insights to the mysterious creative process of a great artist: extraordinary that ‘Benjy’s’, one of these three scenes glimpsed by Doreen within a single minute, would lodge in her subconscious and gestate over nine years before a painting was produced.

Although they never feature prominently, human figures imbue her paintings with a potent psychological tension. No other artist would position the two women trapped, caged, between bus stop and shelter in an otherwise open and expansive scene. Another curiosity: is that a figure in the window of Benjy’s Club, in striped shirt and jacket buttoned once? A cut-out, perhaps, or a mannequin – or merely a game of chance reflections.

Doreen likes to pay homage to her mentors. Two figures sitting side-by-side in the cocoon of the Terminus Restaurant accentuate the solitude of the young woman exposed in the window. Her cloche hat is a nod towards Edward Hopper and his ‘Automat’ of 1927. Like Hopper, Doreen is alert to flashes of revelatory brilliance in an ungodly city.

By: Helen Breen

Helen Breen — Tue, 23 Oct 2018 10:30:12 +0000

Greetings from Boston,

GA, I have really enjoyed looking at Doreen Fletcher paintings on your blog and noticed that you have recently used one of her streetscapes in your masthead – very effective.

Best of luck to Doreen and all of the other East End artists whose work you have supported…