Phyllis Hindle (née Jones) was born in Middlesborough in 1910. Having won a competition for a graphic design she chose to pursue art as a career. She trained at Chelsea College of Arts in London studying under, among others Graham Sutherland. Ever practical, she also earned a teaching diploma.
In 1939 she married fellow grammar school teacher, Brian Hindle and moved to Birmingham where she remained until her death in 1999.
After Brian’s death she returned teaching, working in a local school by day and teaching adult classes in the evenings. The evening classes covered a wide range of artistic subjects including related skills such as flower-arranging and paper-sculpture. This soon lead to the offer of a permanent staff position at the Birmingham College of Arts and Domestic Science.
At the same time Phyllis’s own career as a painter took off and she became more prolific. Her sadness at seeing the destruction of many of the wonderful historic (Victorian) buildings of Birmingham’s city centre led her to start recording them before and during demolition, she followed this up with paintings of the reconstruction.
In later years an interest in bridges as a subject for paintings led to a wider interest in the steel industry which was in decline. She was able to get access to many of the steel works around the country and create paintings of the processes before the plants were closed down, some of these works were bought for the collections of those companies.
She also painted portraits, landscapes, flowers and worked in a wide variety of media. Whenever some new artistic medium came to market she would seize the opportunity to experiment. She sought inspiration everywhere. On one occasion she based an abstract “Crown of Thorns” (3-D with rusty nails embedded in plaster) on an industrial photo she’d seen, a cross section of a weld in Aluminium. Later when it was in one of her many exhibitions a metallurgist commented “Do you know what that reminds me of? A weld in Aluminium!”. She expanded on her calligraphic skills and learnt signwrighting in order to take-on the task of repainting the signage for her local parish church.
In parallel her role at the college expanded, a separate art department was created of which she was appointed head. Although not an art college, art and design was increasingly being recognised as an important component of many of the courses. Chefs needed to understand the importance of visual presentation of food and I remember how chocolate and cake tins were collected to use a substitutes for cakes for catering students to use to learn decorative icing techniques. The hairdressers course required that students create an artwork representative of a hair style, for those students who struggled with drawing Phyllis would try them out with alternatives, maybe that student could work better with clay, collage, fabrics or even a more abstract representation. Her view was that everyone has artistic capabilities, the challenge is finding the best way each individual can best express themselves.
The value of artworks depends on a number of features including such basics as dimensions and framing. A more material consideration is the medium and technique. Then we come to style and subject. And of course the artist’s reputation. While all these do have a bearing the most important factors (in my humble opinion) is : do you like it and how long would it stay on your wall if you bought it (i.e. would you get bored!).
This is a private collection and the simple fact is that I just don’t have the space to display more that 10% of it. My most conventionally valuable pieces , that’s to say, a London auctioneer would be aiming for sales well into the £thousands based on previous sales and the artist’s reputation are not on my walls. Of those that are, my favourite has a value to me of £10,000. That’s way in excess of what anyone is likely to be willing to pay or that any independent valuation might propose. It’s not a famous artist, not in a medium that attracts high prices but for me it’s the artist’s best work, I want to keep it on my wall but I would be thrilled to discover someone else shared my appreciation and would be happy for it to go to a new home where it would continue to be appreciated.
For me value is subjective, buy what you like, not what other’s tell you is a good piece in their, perhaps, expert opinion. I’ve visited may global art galleries host to works by famous names. More often than not they are inferior examples purchased for ludicrous prices simply as a status symbol to be able to boast that: Our national gallery holds a “masterpiece” by [insert famous artist’s name here!] .
That’s why everything here is potentially for sale but nothing has a price. If you genuinely like it, make an offer.