Bombsites around Paul Street c.1950
Gouache on brown paper, 43 x 61cms

In the early 1950s, Cyril Mann no longer paints facing the sun, but now with the sun behind him. It allows him to see more colour and stops his pictures from resembling night scenes.

This gouache was painted on brown wrapping paper, which Mann preferred to expensive, characterless drawing paper. Throughout his life, he loved unusual textures, painting on second-hand theatre screens, or priming newspapers for his drawings. He often made his own stretchers, using rough hessian rather than linen. He used big, inexpensive decorator's brushes, insisting that 'sable brushes were only for amateurs'.