I have long been an admirer of Christine Southworth’s drawings, full of energy and exploration. And when I tracked her down we spoke on the ‘phone and agreed to meet at her home and studio. Christine gave me the address and then said, “You’ll arrive at a piazza and our house is the one with the bell tower.” Now Christine herself giggled a little at that, but then said, “Sorry, sounds pretentious, but it’s the best way to find our house.”

 

So I found the piazza, spotted the bell tower…and then the Bugatti parked outside. No this wasn’t Verona, this was Horwich, just outside Bolton. Christine and her husband Carl Jacobs came out to meet me, mainly as I was stranded admiring the electric blue car. I had come to talk art, but the first half hour, I have to admit, was car talk. Once inside the converted 19th century mill building, the coffee arrived and the non-art chat continued. Christine and Carl are both in their 70s, but have only been a couple for the past few years or so. Christine tells of how Carl approached her at an exhibition and asked if he could buy her a coffee. And how she dismissively said, “Get in the queue!” Two years ago they eloped and got married. “At Gretna Green,” Carl adds, “We’d originally planned Venice, but it didn’t work out.” Then I learn that Carl is half Italian. Ah, the romance of it all clarifies, particularly as I look at a photograph of a young Carl, tousled hair and dark moustache the epitome of bohemian.   

 

But on to art. I had come to chat about Christine’s career, but Carl too is now a painter, after following a career in graphic design. His work is landscape which he sells mainly through a gallery in Padstow. Someone told me a while ago that Christine draws every single day and I ask her about this. “Yes, it’s an addiction. I can’t get through a day without drawing or painting. Sometimes I’ll go straight to the easel first thing in the morning and just shout to Carl ’See you in the kitchen at 1.’ I’ve been doing this for a long time and I still have a burning curiosity. Exploring anatomy is my thing. Ever since my teens I’ve drawn at every opportunity. At school and then at college – and every other drawing and painting class I could find.”

 

Christine went on to become Head of Art at Bolton School for over two decades, but talking to her about this it is clear what the added attraction to teaching was. “I just sat in the art classes, drawing and painting along with the pupils.”

 

Coffee and first chats complete, Christine took me to the temporary studio she set up at home. She has a permanent studio in Bolton and a studio in Canada where, in normal times, she would spend a proportion of the year. “Actually I’m an etcher, but my passion for drawing helps me to understand the visual world. It’s a natural progression. I will spend time drawing a subject – maybe even myself though a mirror – working out the anatomy. But when I paint, I paint directly, without drawing. To me if you draw a subject and then add paint it’s just colouring in.”

 

Christine has taken a break from her obsessive, continuous drawing explorations to talk to me. But she shows me a large, blank sheet of paper taped to a drawing board. “Just feel the weight and texture,” she instructs me, which I do. “I can really go at it, it’ll stand up to paint being applied and scraped around with a pallete knife.” 

 

Somehow I get the impression that the engine’s revving and ready to go (Christine’s not the Bugatti) and so I take my leave - and leave her to that exciting blank sheet of paper.