‘OtherVoices, Other Rooms’ - the exhibition opening at the Focal Point Gallery next week - has got to be one of the most poignantly fascinating it has held so far.

It is dedicated to the beautiful graphite artwork of deceased local man Paul Anthony Harford, who was a cleaner on Southend pier.

He died, aged 73, in November 2016, in Leigh, without ever having shown his work.Pier

This fact is as utterly intriguing as the drawings he leaves behind, a collection of observations and documentaries of exquisitely ordinary scenes, often cynical, sometimes slightly surreal or tinged with dark irony, depicting life in a seaside town.

Harford had created hundreds of these large-scale works.

Director of the Focal Point Gallery Joe Hill, explains: “Harford had no real interest in gaining recognition for his work and so never sought any opportunities to exhibit. His emotional connection to the drawings made him unable to contemplate parting with or showing them. They were all kept, stacked several layers deep around the walls of his attic studio.”

Joe says he only became aware of Harford after his ex-wife, Elsa Harford, contacted the gallery by email, stating that although Paul had never expressed an interest in showing his work during his life, the family felt it now should be shown and they were looking for a place to exhibit.

As soon as the gallery director saw the images, he was taken. He said the exhibition will be held in two parts in Southend; at the Focal Point Gallery in Elmer Square, and also the Twenty One cultural hub in Pier Approach, where Harford’s more “seafront inspired” works shall be shown.

Echo: Intriguing - A glimpse of the collection of Harford’s large-scale drawings depicting life through his eyes

Paul Harford had attended Byam Shaw School of Art in London as a mature student. Following this, aged 26, he moved his young family to Southend after a chance advertisement for a seafront flat caught his attention. The couple knew nothing about Southend at the time, apart from the fact it had a long pier. After the family arrived, Paul was desperate for work and so secured a job cleaning windows in Southend’s High Street before eventually earning a new position, cleaning the arcades at the end of the pier, where he witnessed the devastating pier fire of 1976.

Joe adds: “Harford’s drawings are rooted in his lived experience and shed light on his unique viewpoint of the British seaside town.

“Often putting himself at the centre of the work, he discloses some of the underlying truths prevalent in these places. Later in life Harford depicts the seaside as a complex refuge, a site where addictive behaviours are acted out and the typically unseen realities of aspiration and decline are laid bare.”

Elsa Harford recalls how following their move to Southend, the family would explore old landmarks such as the Cliff Lift, Peter Pan’s Playground and the “amazing illuminated tableaux of Never Never Land”.

She says: “Paul’s favourite walk was along the cliffs to the original Beecroft gallery and he would have been delighted that the building is soon to be transformed into artists’ studios. Later, Paul would travel early in the morning on the original electric green and white pier trains to clean the arcades. The ever-changing sea and sky of the estuary gave him a sense of freedom and space which he captured in many paintings and drawings. Unfortunately, these early works have not survived, but images of the seafronts at Southend and Weymouth, where he later lived for many years, became linked in his imagination. The devastating pier fire of 1976 left a lasting impression and several of the drawings in the exhibition depict the familiar image of smoke billowing from a burning structure.”

Echo: Paul Harford artwork

In 1972 the family moved to Westcliff and Paul found employment at a local boys’ school where he taught art for several years.

Elsa added: “Unfortunately, the conflict between a demanding job and his own artistic creativity took its toll and things fell apart with the break up of the marriage and an increasing dependency on alcohol. Paul moved to London in 1983 but the lure of the seaside town soon persuaded him to move to Weymouth where he completed over 100 drawings with no intention of exhibiting or selling them in his lifetime.

“In 2015 he moved back to the Southend area to be near his family where, in spite of ill-health, he was able to revisit the scenes which had inspired him, including a last nostalgic outing to the pier. ”

l This exhibition opens on Saturday January 20, from 6pm - 8pm, and at Twenty One, Pier Approach from 8pm - 11pm.

Echo: Paul Harford artwork