Secret artist Eric Tucker's paintings set for first exhibition

This is how most people who knew Eric Tucker would remember him.

Only his close family knew his secret.

Eric Tucker

When Eric died at the age of 86 in July this year, he left behind more than 370 paintings and thousands of drawings crammed into cupboards, wardrobes and the garden shed of the home in Padgate where he had lived for nearly his whole life.

On the quiet, Eric had been an artist – depicting the streets, pubs and clubs of Warrington in a style akin to Lowry and Edward Burra over the course of nearly seven decades.

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Now, his art will go on show for the first time when his family opens up the door to his end-of-terrace house on King George Crescent for an exhibition celebrating his life’s work.

Eric’s nephew Joe Tucker said: “Everyone in Eric’s immediate family knew that he was a painter, but I don’t think we quite realised just how much work he produced.

“It was only after he died and my parents came to count the paintings that we knew.

“Canvasses were literally stacked in every room.

“He was a very sociable guy, one of these people who knew all of his neighbours, but I don’t think he ever really spoke about his love of art to many people.

“Most people won’t realise that he painted, and certainly not to that extent, but he carried on painting until he basically couldn’t hold a brush anymore.”

WATCH: Inside Eric Tucker's exhibition

It was in the 1950s that Eric, an ‘ordinary working class guy’ in his 20s, began painting and would regularly visit art galleries in Manchester and Liverpool.

Never married and never having children, he had no formal training in art and never exhibited or sold his work.

As part of the exhibition, the front room of Eric’s home where he created these countless artworks has been left as it was when he died.

Tony Tucker in his brother Eric's front room

Joe added: “His house has been cleared now and painted white like a gallery, but we’ve kept the front room exactly as it was because it’s a bit of an exhibit in itself.

“There are boxes of magazines from 1952, gallery catalogues and old Ken Dodd records.

“For him, it was the main work of his life, it’s not like he was just a Sunday painter – he was really serious about this and produced vast quantities of work.

“They all show the world he lived in – working class life in the industrial north.

“It’s all about the intimate real life of Warrington, and a lot of these scenes will have gone now or changed completely.

“He was also fascinated by the circus, entertainers and cabaret.

“People we have spoken to in the art world have said that it is unusual for this amount of work to suddenly come to light.”

It is not clear why Eric decided not to showcase his work to a wider audience than his immediate family, who he would occasionally give his paintings to as gifts.

Joe said: “The honest answer is that we don’t exactly know why.

“I think it was partially because he was totally outside of the art world.

“He never had any training, and because of the class and generation he came from he probably didn’t feel like being an artist was a genuinely achievable dream.

“Maybe he never felt ready, or that he still felt that he was practicing – I don’t know.

“Perhaps he didn’t have the belief or confidence to get his work out there, although interestingly just before he died – in the final year of his life – he did say he would like the work to be seen.”

This weekend, that wish will be fulfilled.

The exhibition at 14 King George Crescent runs from 10am to 6pm on Saturday, October 27, and from 10am to 4pm on Sunday, October 28.

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