The loss of a dear friend

 

The loss of a dear friend

On Monday 29th September 2025 I lost a dear friend: the artist Charles Hardaker. I was sixteen in 1949 and Charles a little younger, when we met at the Birmingham College of Arts and Crafts. We enjoyed competing together; he was my example, as we roamed the streets of our heavily bombed city, always with sketch-books at hand. Charles later settled in London at the Royal College of Art and soon became a well-known, hardworking painter. His works (mainly oils) were widely exhibited. The freedom of his paint textures is a joy in itself. Wherever you look, there is always something fascinating happening.

It is said that Charles aimed to show something of the wonder and mystery of the so-called ordinary world. He was influenced by the way Giorgio Morandi could arrange pots and pans to suggest a "conversation". Charles' still life paintings were a comment on groups or relationships.

                                          

A spiritual man, yet with a twinkle in his eye, Charles invited us into his inner world, through the many paintings of his modest studio hallway. Everyone wanted to know what the letters on the doormat were. Charles later drew our gaze outside with the light coming though the half-open door. He was looking for open doorways, leading to light, symbolic for him of "the other side". After all these years, Charles has now found it. Rest in peace, my dear friend.

         

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