Leslie Priestley Master Painter: The extraordinary talents of an ordinary man

From a modest working class background Leslie Priestley, through hard work and diligence, became a Master Craftsman and dedicated teacher of the skills of Decorative Painting Techniques. This book illustrates his achievements and shows fine examples of his Decorative Effects, Graining, Marbling, Heraldry, Sign-Writing and more Whilst downsizing our father’s belongings after our mother died, my sister Irene and I realised that he had kept, in his attic, his demonstration work for the teaching of the City and Guilds and Union of Lancashire and Cheshire Institutes Examinations from his time at Bolton College of Art : Painting and decorating department . He insisted that we should get rid of it all as he thought it would be of no interest to anyone. We thought it would be a shame to destroy a lifetime’s work and so after his death we began the long process of restoring, sorting, cataloguing, scanning and archiving the whole collection. As it took so long, by the time we had completed all this, technology had advanced so much that we were able to use computers, scanners and storage on portable USBs instead of the problem of how to save it all. We then had to find a home for the collection and after exploring various options, eventually Bolton Museum and Art Gallery agreed to take it and store it in their Archive Department, The Chadwick Resource Centre, where it can be viewed by appointment. We were very pleased that it is being looked after in Bolton where we thought it belonged. The Museum already has a collection of marbling and graining by another local painter, the great Victorian decorator Thomas Kershaw, to whom Leslie was regarded as a true successor. We were amazed at the amount of knowledge that was required by students in order to pass the examinations. They sometimes had to spend two or three whole days at an external centre to prepare and present the work not knowing beforehand what they would be expected to produce from the vast spectrum of subjects. In the brief biography we tried to give an insight into the type of man he was. He made the most of every opportunity that came his way and enjoyed his life to the full, acknowledging that he had been very lucky with his work and his family. There were ups and downs like any family has, he could be short tempered when busy or stressed but mostly got on with things with a dry sense of humour. He had a love of dance music and made good use of his “new-fangled” cassette tape recorder. He was not at ease in company as he said , he “brought himself up” but no visitor ever went away empty handed , either with produce from his garden or one of his small pictures and a coin for his nieces and nephews for spending money. When we went to collect his belongings from the hospital where he died, the nurse handed them over and said “Your father was a gentleman .” We hope you will enjoy looking at this collection of his work, and that in spite of Leslie’s doubts, it is of interest to someone. Truly it shows the extraordinary talents of an ordinary man.