It's always the same. I post on an artist and almost straightaway come across fresh material. This time it comes from Valerie Martin and her website http://findonvillage.com/ and I sincerely hope she will forgive me lifting material. (My webmail won't work with the contact link on the site). Valerie has done a good deal of useful research on Taylor. It turns out that he lived in the village (I assume he retired there) and the first image is of a lane nearby. Even more interesting, in a way, is the second image of Smeston watermill near Wolverhampton. Taylor came from the town and began his working life drawing bath-taps for trade journals (and also taking art classes). It appears from what Valerie says he left this work in 1905 and was living in West Kensington, London, in 1908. Presumably he was attending the RCA - no mean feat for someone who started out on bath fittings. He then taught at Dover for two years, married, and moved to Westcliffe on Sea when he began teaching at the Southend School of Art. Interesting all this because other artist arrivals in West Sussex were working not so far away as I noted in the post on Arthur Rigden Read. Also interesting that he went back to make engravings of an area he knew as a boy. And the work on taps paid off because the lower print has a tremendous sense of both depth and structure. Valerie's site also has a number of watercolours by Taylor. (I was relieved to find that here was one printmaker who could at least turn out a decent if conventional watercolour). My thanks are due to her.
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