HOME IS WHERE THE ART IS
Wirral couple, Michael and Corinna Gould, have aired on our
screens in the new BBC show, Home is Where the Art is, hosted
by Nick Knowles. Wirral Life caught up with them to find out
more.
Michael said: "Corinna and I have always enjoyed collecting art
and filling the walls of our home with paintings that not only suit
our taste, but also the space where we place them.
"Andy McCluskey of OMD, who’s been a friend for the past 15
years, started me off with my love of original art, and I used to
accompany him to art auctions with the occasional purchase of
a piece of Northern Art, normally of some dark satanic mill or
men in flat caps. We sold much of our art collection when we
moved from our Victorian property in Oxton Village 5 years ago.
The art was mainly heavy gilt frames and it just suited the house,
and lucky for us, the new buyers loved it.
"Somebody on Facebook put up the ad for BBC1 "Home Is Where
The Art Is" hosted by Nick Knowles, and I thought it would be fun
(and my wife Corinna, didn’t take that much persuasion when I
mentioned new outfits for each days filming) so we applied. The
next day we were asked if we could do a Skype interview with
the programs researchers, and low and behold, after assuring
the programs series producer that we had no skeletons in the
cupboard to embarrass the BBC, we were in!
"A huge amount of filming is needed to produce each 43-minute
program. In total we did 5 days filming and the 3 artists also did
a combined 5 days filming independent to us. We were in the
fortunate financial position to be able to give the artists a decent
budget of £2000 for the winning piece. All three artists were lovely
people and very complementary of our home but it came down to
the charming Liverpool sculptor, Tony Evans and the very lovable
Leeds based, stained glass artist, Zoe Eady. Anybody who knows
us will know our love of the city of Liverpool and it was impossible
to choose between two pieces. The BBC was not happy about
us wanting both pieces to win on camera, but lets just say my
sometimes-bombastic management style won through in the end.
"Local artist Tony Evans (as has Zoe) has had great success as a
result of the show with many “deposits paid” commissions as a
direct result of the show. When I asked him which Liver Bird had
he made for us, was it Birtie or Bella? He replied, with his usual
Liverpool wit "you didn’t pay me enough to make the bird male,
so its Bella" which is probably appropriate as Bella is the Liver
Bird looking over from Liverpool, across the Mersey to the Wirral
where we live. Tony’s story of becoming an artist is fascinating
with him starting his professional career as an artist in his sixties
after spending the first 30 years of his working life collecting
premiums for the Prudential Insurance Company in the L15
postcode of Liverpool.
"The whole experience of making the TV show was great fun and
we ended up with two outstanding pieces of art, which reflect our
love of the great city of Liverpool."
The episode of Wirral couple Corinna and Michael can be seen
on BBC IPlayer “Home Is Where The Art is “ series 2 program 3.
10 wirrallife.com