Local artist Steve ‘Broady’ Broadhurst is rapidly becoming a Salford’s favourite.
And now the pencil and charcoal sketcher is injecting more colour into his art as he gears up for a brand new new exhibition – Follow that Dream – at the Langworthy Cornerstone in Salford.
Steve, 54, began 2015 with a show depicting long-lost scenes, rain-sodden streets and the characters who inhabit them.
Now there’s more confidence to his sketches, which go on show on 2 November.
He told us: “I love Salford, it has so many great characters, and I can still recall all the old buildings that have been demolished, and so I try and recapture them.
“Perhaps it is looking back through rose-tinted spectacles but I yearn for those days of my formative youth to come back and many is the time I wander back there in my imagination.”
Steve was born at Spike Island in Broughton, then moved to Ennerdale House off Regent Road.
He told us his formative years in Salford sparked his love of the place, and especially the help of an unnamed art teacher at Salford Grammar school who advised his parents that a career in art would suit.
The daily grind of being a graphic artist after leaving school wasn’t for Broady though.
So it’s through these new works that his vision really begins to shine.
The exhibition which will feature some 80 pieces of Steve’s work and isn’t the first time that he has displayed at Cornerstone.
He has held two exhibitions there there this year and one at Eccles Community Art Gallery where his work virtually sold out. He began accepting commisions from customers who were delighted at his style of work.
I have been a long time fan of Steve’s work, he really has an eye for detail and has captured Salford perfectly and with a great sense of fun which shines through.
“I have been photographing and sketching Salford for nearly all my life, it’s a hobby really and I do it mainly for my own pleasure.
“I have a great love of Salford especially old Salford, we have lost much of it and I think it’s important to record the place and the people.
“The new exhibition will feature mainly Salford locations but also Manchester and Cheetham Hill, those places have some great architecture and hold happy memories for me.
“I have added a dash of colour to some of my new works with a touch of pastel work, so yes, it is slowly creeping in.
Join Broady at Follow that Dream, which opens at Langworthy Cornerstone 451 Liverpool Street, Salford M6 5QQ on 2 November 2015 and runs for four weeks.
