An artist is appealing to the people of Stevenage for information on her painter father.
Terri Broughton - an artist herself who now lives in Fakenham, Norfolk - wants to shed light on her father’s career in the town, after finding a 60-year-old newspaper story in the Stevenage Gazette about his successful career as a self-taught portrait painter.
Harry Hiorns painted more than 100 portraits of people in Stevenage, and now Terri is desperate to track them down and to talk to anyone who knew him or her mum.
Harry died tragically at the age of 40 when Terri was seven years old, just two years after the death of her mother Pat, aged 33.
Terri, along with her sisters Sandra and Julie - who stills lives in Stevenage - were taken into care and fostered separately, reuniting in adulthood. Their combined knowledge of their parents was scant.
The article in the Stevenage Gazette has shed considerable light on Harry Hiorns and his painting career, working as a process worker at the British Visqueen.
He became a painter by accident after a lengthy stint in bed with rheumatic fever, where he began using his comb dipped in paint to create what he described as ‘not half bad’ images on the back of envelopes.
A successful career as a much sought-after portrait painter followed. He began with portraits of his shift colleagues, which then snowballed after painting Mr Beauchamps, who ran an art supplies store - where his portrait was displayed in the shop window. From there, commissions came flooding in.
Uncovering Harry's story in the Gazette has opened up a whole new understanding of their father for his three daughters. They did not know that he then took himself off to Paris to paint and study for a short period.
Terri said: “Much of the information in the Gazette article was new to us. We knew very little about our father’s life.
"I think he would have been very proud to know that I have inherited his talent and am now a professional painter after many years as a head teacher in Norfolk.
“If anyone has a painting in their family signed either Hiorns, Harry Hiorns or H. Hiorns, I would dearly love to make contact with them so that we may be able to build a better picture of our father after all this time. My dad would be very thrilled to know that I have exhibited in Japan, London, Beirut, Italy and Paris.
“Harry painted more that 100 portraits before he tragically died, and my sisters and I would be pleased to hear from anyone who knew him."
Those with any insight into Harry's life, or believe they have one of his paintings, can contact Terri at enquiries@terribroughtonart.co.uk.
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