Ray is back at Beaux Arts London for a second time this year after his show there in March, ‘London Is Up For Grabs’, was curtailed after a couple of weeks of a great opening due to lockdown.

During lockdown he wanted to work, but not at his studio by The Thames in Woolwich. Instead he worked home alone with his sidekick, bull terrier Wee Bri to stay safe. With his wife away caring for her mother, he turned the dining table into a makeshift studio. In their apartment he masked off the whole table with newspaper (leaving an area clear to eat his meals from) and brought materials home from his studio to paint from home and dubbed it the Indoor League Studio.

Over the next twelve weeks, determined to work and to keep sane in what were and are strange times for the whole country, he produced a nice body of small and chunky but funky oil on board paintings of whatever he felt like doing and that came into his nut. This painting away alone at home often felt a bit groundhog day but was interspersed with watching re-runs of Minder, Frasier & classic football matches on TV, having a couple of kick arounds with his neighbour and old football playing Ray’s friend Tony from upstairs, going running and talking to and taking Wee Bri out, making sure that they both ate regularly to give the day some structure.. So that was the form for twelve weeks.

An idea came and a plan was hatched to show this new lockdown work alongside some of the work from the earlier and cut short show form March ‘London Is Up For Grabs’. Some people didn’t get the chance to see that show back then and so the idea of an impact week came up with a reprise of the show with the lockdown stuff and ‘The Tales From The London Lockup’ was born out of working in murky heights’ times so come and have a look, stay safe and keep on keeping on…KTF.