This painting was started long ago in 1960 when I was twelve years old and made a drawing using a ruler for the straight lines.
I was up in Motherwell for the school holidays with my mother Margaret. The Lanarkshire Steelworks was directly behind the house I was born in and where my Aunt Isa now lived. This was 229, Windmillhill Street, in between this and the steelworks was the West Coast main line that ran from London to Glasgow, so it was a busy scene.
In 1976 I drew the same view with the title ‘On the Scrapheap’. This was a prophetic title as by the time I painted the 2005 picture both the Lanarkshire steelworks and the Ravenscraig roll mill had long gone so the view is truly on the scrap heap. The home of my birth has also gone, making way for a Police Station.
