HE touched the hearts of thousands when ‘Warrington’s secret Lowry’ left behind more than 370 unseen paintings and thousands of drawings when he died, aged 86.

Now people can see Eric Tucker’s only publicly exhibited piece, Ready for Christmas, at Warrington Museum and Art Gallery ahead of a major retrospective of the late Padgate artist’s work in November next year.

Eric, a former boxer and retired building labourer, had no formal art training and was modest about showcasing his talent during his lifetime.

But he was reluctantly persuaded to enter Ready for Christmas in the annual Warrington Arts Purchase Prize exhibition staged by Warrington Arts Council at the art gallery in 1995.

The picture won and Eric’s work became part of the town’s collections.

Janice Hayes, heritage manager for Culture Warrington, said: “It’s always been very popular whenever we put it on show in here but we didn’t realise at the time it was the only Eric Tucker that was ever publicly exhibited.

“So we thought it would be lovely to put it on show because it’s got a lovely Christmassy theme and the exhibition we’ve put it in – Warrington Art Treasures – is celebrating all the best Warrington artists.

“Many of them went to art school and Eric didn’t but I think the public reaction is he’s as good an artist as many of those.”

Eric’s nephew Joe attended the unveiling ceremony for Ready for Christmas. He was also there when hundreds queued outside Eric’s King George Crescent house to see his work for the first time.

He added: “I remember this painting on his easel in his front room. I certainly remember him originally entering it into the open call for artists.

“I think the thing my uncle would have loved more than anything is how the people of Warrington turned out to come and see the exhibition at his house. He would have been absolutely overwhelmed.

Warrington Guardian:

“We didn’t really know how many people would turn up. When we first came up with the idea I thought I might have to knock on the neighbours’ houses and ask them to come around.

“But on the Saturday morning before we opened a queue started to form and we had a solid queue on both days around the block.

“People were so nice. We felt terrible because it was quite cold but people were completely willing to wait to see the work so it was wonderful.

“Eric was a ball of contradictions really. He was a very gregarious, sociable, funny and affable man but when it came to his art he was extraordinarily sensitive about it.

“Given the class and generation he came from I don’t think he ever imagined how he could become a professional artist.

“But I don’t know why he was so resistant to exhibiting and selling his work. It remains a little bit of mystery.”

Eric’s work depicted the streets, pubs and clubs of Warrington in a style akin to L.S. Lowry and Edward Burra over the course of nearly seven decades.

Janice said: “It always makes me smile when I see it, particularly the woman with the red nose as it was obviously a really cold day.

“There are all these nice little touches. You recognise where it is looking towards the clock tower of Holy Trinity.

“But you really need to look at the people – the excited children and the tired shoppers plodding home. There are some real characters in it.

“What people really like about Eric’s work is you get a sense of Warrington and a lot of the characters who are no longer there. A lot of the familiar street pubs have started to disappear so it is a vanished world.”