I picked up the brushes to cope with the toughest memories and experiences
Plus: Answers into a summer tragedy and devolution funding release
Good morning and welcome to the latest edition of The Blackpool Lead, coming at your twice-a-week with your dose of all things Blackpool and diving deep into what’s happening.
This week we have a bit of a change of pace to get you through Wednesday, as Charley Baines opens up on her extraordinary artistic journey. She’s such a talent and is bring her work right here to town.
We also look ahead to Fuel Poverty Week, thanks to our friends at Cosy Homes in Lancashire who are supporting future editions of The Blackpool Lead (a big thank you to them for that!). They are running a free event next week for anyone to discover how they can receive financial support to make their home warmer and more energy efficient. Given the recent temperatures I think that’s something we can all get onboard with!
And there’s also a quick news digest to bring you up to speed on all things Blackpool in the past few days…
Blackpool art prodigy channels tough experiences to bring captivating debut exhibition to life
Charley Baines has wowed teachers and artists across the country - and her debut exhibition opens in Blackpool this week
By Michael Holmes
An art prodigy who saw off 21,500 rivals to have her work - an emotional portrait of her father - displayed in London’s Royal Academy of Arts will open her debut exhibition in Blackpool tomorrow (21 November).
Charley Baines, 18, picked up her brushes to cope with some tough “memories and experiences”, and has since wowed her teachers and artists in her adopted hometown.
She said: “I found fine art during that time and I thought, ‘I could put something together here’. It was the manifest of everything. It was not just me I was representing, it was other people that could gather something from it too.”
Charley, who lives in Bispham with her mother Katy Grewcock, a social work practitioner at the University of Central Lancashire, and step-father Mick Grewcock, a well-known local property owner, went to primary school near Preston.
After being awarded a bursary and scholarship to learn at AKS Lytham, she studied fine art, graphic design and English literature at Blackpool Sixth Form, earning grades of A*, A and B respectively.
She is having a gap year but has applied to study physics at university next year - and sees an “intersectionality” between the science and art that she finds “particularly inspiring”.
Talking to The Blackpool Lead about her work, Charley, who lived as a transgender boy called Chandler from the ages of 14 to 17, said she has “always maintained some sketchbooks” but did not take art seriously until around a year ago.
“I wasn’t doing very well in school at the time and it felt like the only thing that made sense,” she said.
“The internet opened my eyes when I was younger to an array of content in forms of arts I could express. It wasn’t until sixth form when I started to learn more about art within general society, not just the niche corners of the internet.”
Charley made headlines this summer when a portrait of her father, Dark Beauty, John Paul Baines, was picked to be displayed in the capital as part of the Royal Academy’s young artists’ summer show.
“To a person outside of art, it’s definitely a painting,” Charley told The Blackpool Lead.
“Within fine art, I’d call it contemporary. It’s not a trailblazer by any means but it stands out amongst other paintings because it’s a beaten down guy on his low.”
Charley said she had the portrait of her father, who she described as “funny and intelligent”, framed so he can have it on his mantelpiece so he can “look at it and hopefully reflect”.
She said: “The lights in (his) house are really yellow - a tungsten colour - and even though the house was really dysfunctional and my life was really dysfunctional, there was this everlasting sense of me being loved.”
Charley’s latest work includes paintings of residents at a care home where she worked and of her brother Louis Baines, 20, a student at Blackpool and The Fylde College.
“Painting is really for the people,” Charley said. “It doesn’t matter if it’s huge and established. What I mean is we obviously live in a society that is still based on a class structure and a gender structure. I find that painting, rather than being something for an aristocratic class to have in their nice country homes, it’s now something that is more in uncensorable language that we can truly understand the depth of.”
“I just try and pick the things that I think are important to our contemporary society and I hope it makes people feel seen or they can get something out of it.”
And what does the future hold for Charley ahead of her possible university course in September?
She said: “Because I’ve changed so much I have (a dream) but I have never told anyone: I’m really inspired by things in tech that are happening right now. To be a part of the revolution that is going to come and to do something to help play a part in that would be the most amazing thing.
“I’m working to create AI that helps to connect artists to commerciality and business. That’s the summary of it, essentially. We can use (AI) for good if we want to.”
Charley landed the exhibition, called Please Believe Me, at HiveArts and Hive Urban Farm Shop in Church Street in the town centre almost by chance.
She said: “It was a hot summer’s day and I was like, ‘What am I doing with my life?’
“I wrote this piece up and walked into Hive. I saw two of the founders - Dawn (Mander) and Ian (Currie) talking. I said, ‘Can I just say something to the people that run this?’ I was waxing lyrical about my art.
“I pulled out these prints and they said, ‘Wow, this is good!’
“One thing I hope is that I will have a list of clients that will help me survive this financial year so I can study. But more than that it’s that the whole community will be amazing.
“I’m excited, too. It’s good for Hive and Blackpool. I feel like a lot of people in Blackpool don’t see the hope in it.”
Charley began posting flyers for the exhibition, which launches at 6pm today and runs until January 4, but said she found herself in trouble with the authorities.
She said: “I had put up posters very enthusiastically all over the Fylde coast for this exhibition; about 60, I think, from Lytham to Poulton to Cleveleys, everywhere. I thought I was doing something that would be OK and benefit the area in ways too.
“However, I had my negligence to the local authorities’ rules proved otherwise - I had actually committed a huge crime, a £10,000 crime, for placing my posters everywhere… on top of last summer’s Circus Mondao, electrical boxes.
“I had 48 hours to get them all down or else it would have been £150 for each - a year of uni.
“So I did, however not as enthusiastically as I had put them up. I had walked and bussed everywhere, too.
“It was stupid in hindsight to think it would be OK and I apologised to Hive - and everyone else supporting me mentioned on the posters - for making the mistake 60 times.
“I got all the posters down and I am now going straight and avoiding a life of crime by asking shopkeepers, cafes and placing them on community boards instead!”
Dawn Mander, HiveArts co-founder and curator, said Charley’s work “evokes the brilliance of greats like Paula Rego, Jenny Saville and Lucian Fraud” and is “truly captivating and thought-provoking”.
Discover how to make your home warmer this winter + win an air fryer
Cosy Homes in Lancashire are committed to helping homes become warm, cosy and efficient and can offer advice to accessing funding from your local council.
They are holding several events across Lancashire in conjunction with Fuel Poverty Week to raise awareness of the advice and services available to residents who may need some extra help. You can see details for the Blackpool event below.
Where: Blackpool Eco Hub, Palatine Library, Saint Anne's Rd, Blackpool FY4 2AP
When: 25th November • 10:00 am - 4:00 pm
Sign up for the Little Van of Warm or a visit from the Green Doctors to receive free, small energy savings measures, tips and advice. They will also be holding a free raffle to win a Tefal Air Fryer.
Date set for inquest into death of Blackpool couple in Peter Street fire
Family, friends and the concerned public will hope to get answers next month after the death of a young couple in a house fire in Blackpool in the summer.
Joshua Pearson, 28 and Danielle Bamber, 24, were killed in a fire on Peter Street on Wednesday, 16 July.
It left a community in shock and their two children in hospital after a neighbour smashed into the property to pull them to safety.
Danielle was pronounced dead at the scene while Joshua died at Blackpool Victoria Hospital.
The circumstances of the fire were the subject of extensive rumours online before Lancashire Constabulary confirmed the fire was not being treated as suspicious following an investigation.
But coroner Alan Wilson will hear evidence from Lancashire Constabulary, Lancashire Fire & Rescue Service and North West Ambulance Service at an inquest into their deaths on 5 December.
Blackpool handed cash boost for civil service hub and airport plans in initial devolution release
Blackpool has been handed a £6m boost towards two key regeneration projects in the town.
The cash includes £4m towards the existing £100m cost of the new civil service hub nearing completion on King Street in the town centre, and £2m for the Silicon Sands project at Blackpool Airport.
It has come from an initial release of £20m by the government in preparation for the setting up of Lancashire’s new Combined County Authority (CCA).
Blackpool Council leader Coun Lynn Williams said it was a ‘historic moment’ signalling “the start of this new way of working where we will have more control over local decision and the funding that supports those decisions.”
News in headlines 🗞️
Mum accused of 'squeezing her baby to death' cleared of murder after expert evidence called into question (LancsLive)
22 fabulous pictures as Christmas by the Sea tranforms Blackpool into a winter wonderland (The Gazette)
Strictly Come Dancing lights up Blackpool (BBC)
Family finale to see out Blackpool’s events season (Blackpool Council)
Thank you for reading another edition of The Blackpool Lead.
We loved reading about Charley and her achievements this week. We know the news we bring you can focus on serious, but important, topics at times - so we were keen to bring some light along with the shade.
We packed a lot into the edition and we’re running up against how much we can fit in a single email.
Coming soon we’ll have news about our next print edition. The best way to guarantee a copy of that is to become a paid subscriber today.
We hope you enjoy the rest of your week.
Luke & Ed
