FROM the stark realities of war to charcoal nudes, Syd Haslam has constantly experimented with his artwork over the years.

A new exhibition of his life drawings and paintings, his first solo show in a commercial gallery space, has opened in Manchester.

The 84-year-old Daubhill artist started drawing to avoid doing schoolwork when he was young.

Later, in the Royal Navy during the Second World War, he supplied his comrades with ‘pin-ups’ for their walls — and also captured the horrors of battle.

After leaving the navy, Syd received a grant so he could study art on a full-time basis. However, family commitments meant he returned to work. He worked as a packing case maker at F J Webster and it was only when he retired that he could fully devote time to drawing and painting.

Syd’s early work managed to impress the great painter LS Lowry, who chose one of his pictures of Churchbank for an exhibition at Bolton Art Gallery.

Syd recalled: “Lowry looked at one of my paintings and I believe he said that my style was very similar to his own.”

Today, Syd’s house is filled with pictures, ranging from striking life drawings to watercolours and more abstract pieces.

With the help of his daughter, Louise Hutchinson, he has succeeded in having several works exhibited. The manager of Manchester’s Taurus bar saw Syd’s paintings through his website, sydhaslam.co.uk, and got in touch with Louise to organise the show.

She said: “These are just his life drawings. That’s why we decided on the title, That’s Life!”

Syd uses pencils, charcoal, watercolours and oils — and has even been known to paint on wallpaper.

He said: “I like to change my style of drawing occasionally.I’m an expressionist. “If you want a painting to look exactly like real life, you might as well take a photograph.

“The great painters in the past used their imaginations.

“Drawing and painting keeps me young — it’s marvellous.”

Tom Harrington, one of Syd’s old friends from work, said: “He painted work colleagues at lunchtime — and I wish I had kept mine.”

l That’s Life! runs throughout March at the Taurus bar, Canal Street, Manchester city centre.