Oxford Canal Wharf, circa 1968

Monochromatic watercolour on cheap school paper, 15.5 x 18.5 inches

I went down memory lane yesterday in my home town of Banbury, looking for my haunts from childhood by the river at Grimsbury where we lived. I found it, but it had changed almost beyond recognition. The shallows where Graham Hale, Paul Humphries, Nick Batley and I would catch tiddlers was now much deeper, and access was almost impossible.

But driving over the canal bridge towards Grimsbury sparked a memory...I remember going out with the school and painting by the wharf in Banbury and being less than interested, as can be seen with the rather sloppy reflections and sloping buildings!  However, the painting survived and I dug it out this morning, so here it is, purely as an historical piece. I was far more interested at the time, aged 14, in painting Jackie Stewart, Graham Hill and Jim Clark racing, or painting birds and animals, until landscape painting enchanted me, 15 years later.