Blog Tour: The Art Lovers – G.N. Lawson

Frank Armstrong, a successful but self-important portrait painter, is horrified to discover that Martin, a former student, has painted them together in an exposing scene as past lovers.

Despite his efforts, he is unsuccessful in persuading Martin not to exhibit the painting named ‘The Art Lovers.’ The matter escalates further when Martin has an accident and ends up in hospital in a coma, and the police investigate Frank as a suspect.

Once free from the police and their questioning, Frank is commissioned to paint a series of murals for the nuclear industry and rents a flat in Cumbria. But he soon finds himself amidst protesters and living in an environment very different to the one he grew up in as a child in Kendal.

Things are spiralling out of control when the building to house the murals he painted is burnt to the ground. However, thanks to his resourceful wife, Louise, and the efforts of two crafty art dealers, Frank muddles his way through the setbacks and is surprised to realise a newfound fame which leads to an unexpected reconciliation with Martin.

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Apart from three years studying History of Art and Philosophy at University College London, I have lived my entire life in the North West – born in Warrington, lived and worked in Manchester, and fourteen years ago moved to north Cumbria.

After several years of freelance arts journalism, I ran a NW-based public relations agency called Lawson Leah in the 1990s, then worked for various organisations in the construction
industry, as CEO of Construction for Merseyside Ltd and then Director of the Civil Engineering Contractors’ Association. I have been a guest lecturer on urban regeneration and chaired a housing association for three years, and now work part-time as a consultant.

I have had articles on a range of topics, including the arts, construction, engineering, housing and economic development published in numerous magazines, as well as poetry and a
guidebook to waterway walks in the NW.

My approach to writing tends to involve identifying a problematic situation and then finding a means of resolving it. I derive particular pleasure from finding the right words to achieve that.

I was first inspired to write, as a teenager, after reading The Catcher in the Rye, and latterly find inspiration in the daunting novels of Bellow, Nabokov and Pynchon.

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My thoughts: A group of grumpy old artists are stirred up when one of their former students paints a portrait implying that he, Martin, and his former tutor, Frank, had a relationship back when they were younger. Frank is horrified by this and confronts Martin, but his wife Louise is unbothered. When Martin suffers an accident and ends up in hospital in a coma, the police think Frank is involved, but thankfully the evidence points elsewhere. Another member of their group decides to put the cat among the pigeons and then mysteriously disappears.

Meanwhile Frank is commissioned to paint a series of landscapes, despite normally being a portrait artist, to encourage people to think positively about nuclear power. He is required to return to Cumbria, where he grew up, but finds a very different place to the one he knew. Then the building planned to house his work is burnt down and stuck with a series of paintings he doesn’t want, his agent conspires to include him in an art exhibition of queer artists, despite Frank not being one – because of the slightly infamous “Art Lovers”.

Filled with dry humour, grumpy old men and their much smarter wives and daughters, this was an interesting read, all about complex relationships.

*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in this blog tour, but all opinions remain my own.