pictures
Photographs, drawings and paintings
Hilda Goldwag (1912-2008) – Overflowing Locks
Hilda Goldwag was a Jewish refugee who escaped Austria in 1939. It was later discovered that Hilda lost all her family during the Holocaust. In 1940 Hilda met fellow refugee Cecile Schwarzchild who became her life-long companion.
Initially living on Hill Street in Garnethill, Hilda worked as a turner at McGlashan’s Engineering Works in Govan, designed scarves for Marks & Spencer and did freelance illustration work for Collins Publishers.
Hilda resumed painting after the war, working principally with oils and a palette knife, mostly outdoors and in situ, carrying materials with her on the local buses. She was a familiar sight in the area with a shopping trolley piled high with her painting materials. Her subjects included the nearby Forth and Clyde Canal, the tenements and warehouses of Cowcaddens, and, from the 1980s, exuberant flower pieces, panoramic farm landscapes, waterscapes, and ‘imagined’ figure paintings.
PETER haughton - Mrs Hendry Goes to work (Stair Street)
Stair Street runs from Braeside Street at the Queen’s Cross end of Maryhill Road, into Fergus Drive and Kelvinside Gardens.
It is reputed to be the only street in Glasgow without any buildings in it (but it does have all these steps) and it is also believed to be the shortest street in Glasgow, which explains why it does not show on many street maps of Glasgow – even in this digital age.
However, Partick Thistle fans know it well as a short cut to the home of their beloved Jags - Firhill Stadium.
According to a label attached in the back of the canvas, the painting was sold for £10 by the Glasgow Civic Association and it was only titled ‘Stair Street’. However, we are yet to find any information about the artist.
On the occasion of the G20 Artist Collective exhibition, Hugh Gillan displayed his interpretation of Stair Street, reflecting on the weathered down steps used by so many people every day.
Campbell Ramage – Maryhill Is Wonderful
This photograph is a unique puddle reflection of one of the Wyndford high-rises, a technique typical of Campbell Ramage’s work. The photo is part of the wider project Maryhill Is Wonderful that saw Campbell walking the streets of Glasgow taking more and more photographs of the city around him during lockdown. Campbell found it a great way to switch off from the stresses and strains of those difficult months, and just focus on being in the present. He was beginning to fall back in love with photography and enjoyed sharing these pictures with friends and family.
Maryhill Is Wonderful began at the start of 2022 with the aim of highlighting the beauty of the area which was found in the people who live and work in Maryhill. An exhibition that run between November 2022 and April 2023, showcased Campbell’s black-and-white portraits of the people that make Maryhill.
You can follow Campbell on Instagram.
Bobby rennie - maryhill burgh halls
Dated April 1987, this artwork was painted by landscape and abstract painter Bobby Rennie. The painting was commissioned by a worker of the Burgh Halls after seeing Rennie’s exhibition at the Cumbernauld Theatre. At that time, the Halls were still in use although they had major structural problems and were severely in disrepair being on Historic Environment Scotland Risk Register since the 1960s.
Rennie shared photographs of the artwork when was painting at his old home in Cedar Street, Cumbernauld. The painting is currently hanging in our Meeting Room
You can find out more about the artist on Facebook.
Nichol Wheatley - A Mural for Maryhill
Local artist Nichol Wheatley created this sketch to show his proposal for a Maryhill mural.
The drawing includes the canal lochs, the Burgh Halls complex with the Steamies as well as Andy Scott’s old studio in Lochburn Road where he was making the Kelpies.
The figures on the far right, just above the Mackintosh Halls, are artists Charles Rennie Mackintosh and Margaret MacDonald.
In the centre of the drawing, where the old Barracks were, there’s a soldier standing next to the HLI badge. Next to them is of course Alexander Thomson’s Maryhill Coat of Arms.
Nichol designed this mural in 2010 when he was working with Alasdair Gray’in his Lochburn Road studio. Today, you may recognise Nichol as the artist and curator of the Art Park at Stockingfield Bridge, as well as the father of Bella the Beithir.