This painting of Ribchester Church and Roman Museum was one of the four watercolours donated by Anthony Boyce, our former President, to the Deaf Museum
& Archive in June 2016.
Who was he?
James Brindle was born deaf in Blackburn in August 1892, the son of William and Elizabeth Brindle. There were three siblings in the family, one girl and two boys, and all were educated at the Royal Cross School, Preston, where James’s artistic talent was noted and he was sent to the Harris College in Preston every night until he left school in 1908. He initially worked in a cotton mill before becoming a commercial poster artist and later a landscape and marine painter.
James’s speciality was the painting of landscapes and seascapes, mostly around Preston and the Lake District but as a young man he helped to paint eight long panoramic Egyptian scenes in oil on the balcony of the Harris Art Gallery as well as ten painted portraits of Pharaohs, which are still there, being floodlit at the top floor of the gallery every day. Brindle regularly exhibited at the Harris Museum and Art Gallery throughout his career.
James married Mary Hindley, also a former pupil of the Royal Cross School, after the First World War and became a founder member of the Preston Arts Society in 1924. He travelled all around Preston and to all corners of the British Isles painting countryside scenes. The four paintings exhibited at the Deaf Museum & Archive were painted between 1972 and 1974. He was noted for his help to aspiring artists and regularly gave demonstrations to art classes with the assistance of an interpreter. Brindle continued to paint until a few days before his death in 1977. The Harris Art Gallery staged an exhibition of his artworks as a tribute to the Deaf Ribble Artist.