Ted and Ben loved music but if you prefer not to listen, use controls on the Media Player.

"Green grow the lilacs all sparkling with dew, ~   Green grow the lilacs when winter is through, ~   Each time I see lilacs my heart breaks in two, ~   For Springtime is here and it is here without you."

~ RICHARDSONs from Hounslow Heath ~

Memorial to Edward Arthur James Richardson  |  Ted Richardson - In Memoriam  |  Ted Richardson in the News, 1985  |  Uncle Ben's Stories  |  Ben Richardson in LA Times  |  Ben Richardson, Washington Post  |  Ben Richardson, Baltimore Sun  |  Ben Richardson, 1967 News Clipping  |  Ben Richardson in The News American  |  Harry Richardson and Family  |  Aunt Flo's Letters  |  Aunt Florrie's Journal  |  Frank Heming ~ World War I  |  Grandfather's Memoirs  |  Arthur Richardson Memoirs 1  |  Arthur Richardson Memoirs 2  |   Edward and Emily's Saga  |   John and Polly Mills  | Smith Family of Chelmsford  |   Richard Richardson's Story  |   Primrose Day, April 19th  |   Dr. Jamison and the Boer War  |  Hounslow Heath, England  |  Farm Laborer's Cottage of 1860s  |  Hounslow, England 1831  |   Links of Interest  | |  Richardson Genealogy & Scrapbook  |  

~Neddy's Nook on the Net~
www.ednabarney.com

RICHARDSONs from Hounslow Heath ~ "The Screen Painters" was created by Edna Richardson Barney. The backgrounds came from Ritva Väänänen at RITVA. IRENE's Corner created the painter's pallets.

©Copyright 2001-2008 by Edna Richardson Barney, All Rights Reserved.

  THE SCREEN PAINTERS
Ted & Ben Richardson

"Dreams of the Tropics"
~ a screenpainting by Ted Richardson ~
I made this image from a polaroid snapshot,
dated 1986, given me by my father.

Both Ben Richardson and his brother Ted Richardson were featured in a 1988 documentary film on the folk art of screen painting, done only in the neighborhood of east Baltimore and reaching its greatest popularity during the 1930's and 1940's. That film has run frequently on Maryland Public Television. Years after their deaths, the screens were still adorning the doors and windows of the Baltimore brick row houses.

The 9 June issue 1988 issue of "Owings Mills Times", on page 34, under ARTS, featured a lenghty article about the film, "The Screen Painters", which was directed by Elaine Eff and filmed by Richard Chisholm. My Uncle Ben is mentioned in a column titled "A dying art?": One of the most charming figures in "The Screen Painters" is 84 year old Morrell Park resident Ben Richardson, Ted's younger brother. Despite a fingerless right hand, Richardson painted some of the most striking screens seen in the movie. 'They call it a dying art," he says in the film, 'but it's not the art that's dying; it's the people who do the art who are dying.' There is a large photograph captioned "Ben Richardson, with only a thumb on his right hand, paints a screen in 1900 block of Harman Avenue."

Family members believed that it was Ben who taught his brother Ted to do screen painting. Ted had done some oil paintings when he was younger, following in the tradition of his father, but we do not remember him doing screens until late in life. For artistic effect, Ted deliberately allowed some of the holes in the screens to be clogged with paint. This was always a point of contention between the brothers and Ben would condemn that habit as extremely unattractive and ineffective. This would bring chuckles from the family, because everyone knew it to be an example of continued rivalry between the two elderly brothers. In the film Ben declares "If the holes are clogged up and you look at the screen from the inside, it looks like a bunch of dead flies."

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