Ulric Walmsley was my grandfather. Born in 1860, he died in 1954, when I was 11 years old. Yet I never met him, and until I was much older, only vaguely knew he was a painter. My parents had separated not long after my birth, and I lived with my mother while I was growing up. It was many years later when I became acutely aware of my grandfather, because in 1985 Jack Hazell founded the Walmsley Society, and I attended a meeting of the Society where there were displays of Ulric's paintings. I met my cousin Sheila at one of these meetings, and I visited her at her home in Hull and admired some of Ulric's painting she had displayed. I must have drooled over them because she said she had some paintings up in the attic, which I could have. I graciously thanked her, and took them back to the US and had them cleaned and framed. I'm eternally grateful to Sheila (now departed) for her generosity in starting my collection. As indeed I am to Marilyn Barraclough, the late Keith Handley, and especially my cousin Nick Foggo, for their assistance in locating Ulric's paintings for my collection.
When I look through Ulric's paintings that I own, as well as the catalogue of his work that Walmsley Society members (only) can access on the Walmsley Society website, what stands out in terms of a comparison between his paintings and my landscape photographs is how much his colour palette resembles my own. In terms of his landscapes, they were a good fit between my earlier landscape photography which pretty much comprised painting/photographing to capture scenic views. There's not a hint of abstract painting, other than to recompose (leave objects out, add objects in, change the perspective, and so on). Ulric and I have landscapes and waterscapes in common, although mine have turned more abstract in the past few years. Surprisingly, however, as I compare his preferred color palette to mine, there are more commonalities that do make me wonder if that was a gene passed through his son Leo, mixed with my mother's palette, and then onto me. Another trait I've noticed in both Ulric, Leo, my mother, and my sister is the simplicity of style in all their art. I may be the only one who's trying for more complex photography, but even there, I'm drawn toward extending fairly simple features of nature into more abstract compositions.
One thing that Ulric didn't pass onto me--but clearly did to my sister Anna--was his talent for portraiture--in different media.. Again, nothing abstract, but I keep looking at the Ulric portraits I own, and they are mesmerizing.
