SPREAD THE ART WORD: Mike Harrington

Thursday, 4 January 2007

Mike Harrington

Sadly for everyone who knows him Mike has moved away from Essex and will be retiring from his Chairmanship for START in April.
Mike, after a bit of persuading, forwarded this information on his own art history and his involvement with START which I am sure you will all enjoy.

Early years

I have never had any problems with drawing I could always produce a reasonable likeness.
Around about 1963, my little sister Marie who was about 17, started at an art class at the local Technical College, she was disabled and needed someone to take her, so I went with her. It was there that I started to use oils and painted portraits, it was there I painted Quentin Crisp who was one of the models.

Figure 1 Quinton Crisp about 1965

I really got into oil painting and exhibited at the East Ham Town show and sold a few paintings.

Figure 2 My Mum and Dad admiring my work at the 1968 Town show, the 3 paintings on the left are mine.

I continued attending the art class on and off for over the next few years improving my drawing. Here are a few of the drawings from that time:

In 1977 my mother died and my job as a technician at King’s College London became more demanding, art went on the back burner and I only did a few sketches during my holidays.
In 1987 I had a very bad accident breaking my thigh, it was pinned and screwed back together, it took 7 months to heal enough for me to return to work but after a few months things went wrong and I had to have a replacement hip joint, another 8 months off work.
When the opportunity came in 1993 I took early retirement at the age of 54.
When we moved to Basildon I got involved with Art at Basildon College, I was helping Ingrid Anderson with her Art Class when Terry Orchard from the class asked myself and Ingrid if we would like to join START, that is where I met Dean for the first time, it is also when they invited me to become the Chairman, I think it was 1999.
START was the idea of Dean Smith and Terry Orchard plus others at Basildon College, at that time Jamie Livermore was a student not sure of the others.

We both joined START. My job was to try to help organise the group and set up the committee, we already had a constitution (we copied from another group) and a bank account but no proper structure.
In the first year or so there were many rough times Terry fell out with Dean and left, other people joined and others left, it was changing all the time but I managed to keep focused and we did many events in Basildon and one or two outside of Town.
Maggie joined about a year after I did, all through Dean, Jamie, Maggie and me were the main people, though quit a few joined for a while then moved on.

We always have been involved at the Basildon Festival and Fun in the Park, one year we organised an Art Festival in Basildon Town in front of Brook House, we had lots of stands, pavement art, local pop groups, dancing, plus an exhibition it was a great success.

One summer we ran art classes for children, that is when I met Jack he still has the certificate, I think he was 12 then.

About 5 years ago I was invited to a meeting at Bardfield school, they needed someone to advise them about art in the community, the meeting was attended by representatives from ECC, architects, educationalists and the head of the school, we were looking at the possibilities of an art centre being built at the school. As you know Studios 2 is the result.

Because of the contacts at that meeting I was often called to attend meetings at ECC and others as an expert on community art. It seems that in all of Essex I was the only one.
There are very few organisations like START in the south of England. There are many art groups but none of them get involved like we do.
When 'Commissions East' needed support with 'Art U Need' my name came up again, that's how I met Andrea Mason.