Timmy Mallett (above) has gone from mallet to palette
Aside from art, history and the flamboyant brand of slapstick entertainment he pretty much invented, Timmy Mallett does have one other huge passion.
“I’ve got the play-off final to go to, hopefully,” he says, waxing tirelessly lyrical about his beloved Oxford United.
“But before that there’s the little matter of Rushden and Diamonds home and away. And if we get through that we’ve got Wembley, with the promotion final live on Sky Sports. It’ll be bloody brilliant, absolutely sensational.”
You might have been thinking of small children being bashed over the head or I’m a Celebrity, but Mallett is a man with far more strings to his bow.
"This was the first painting I made from the series," says Mallett. "I like the dry stone walls on the hillside and I can almost hear the steam whistle as the train chugs through the landscape." Acrylic (2010). © Timmy Mallett, brillianttv.co.uk
For starters, he's made six paintings for an event at Keighley and Worth Valley Railway in Yorkshire this weekend to mark the 40th anniversary of The Railway Children.
"I set out to do a couple and ended up doing six," he confesses, reflecting on the original commission.
"I got quite into it and enjoyed it. It's an iconic film, one of my favourites. You're painting how people think about the railway – it's more important to paint the feeling than it is to paint the number of bogies or the wangle dangle or whatever. That's not the point and it never was the point in the film."
He's infatuated with the heritage of the valleys the train rolled through, calls history "my subject" after studying it at university in Warwick, and visits museums in every town he stops at.
"This is the iconic image of The Railway Children," says Mallett. Click here to see him discussing the piece. Acrylic (2010). © Timmy Mallett, brillianttv.co.uk
"I mean, there's a pencil museum in Keswick, for God's sake," he shrills. "How fantastic is that? A museum dedicated to the pencil.
"In High Wycombe there's a Chair Museum. I think it's terrific. The country is built on these little centres of excellence. Everywhere has got somewhere special to show off, hasn't it? That’s why I love my museums and galleries. Art galleries and museums – love 'em, love 'em, love 'em."
The jingle of those words immediately transports you to one of Mallett's shows, and suddenly he's off with a challenge.
"You know in the back of your road atlas in the car? They've got town centre maps, haven't they? You go through your town centre maps next time you get in the car and see how many places you've been to.
"I've done just about every single one. I've not been to Barrow-in-Furness or Holyhead in Anglesey. Margate was on my list until last year when I finally got there, and it was a lot prettier than I was expecting it to be. That's the thing, there are a lot of really interesting places to be."
He paints every day in his studio, and has done for years. "I could do this forever and a day," he promises, managing "100 photos a day, easily" on tour.
"I make sure I've got my eyes open and I'm looking for inspiration. I used to take my paints with me on Wacaday filming trips. The crew would love that, because they'd get a break when I got the paints out."
The tagline is obvious. "They always expect that you'll get the mallet, but I've got the palette as well," he says, chuckling at himself. But his colourful paintings are less of a joke – fellow TV star artist Rolf Harris, who Mallett is mates with, has even admitted being "blown away" by the canvasses.
"We exchange emails on a daily basis," reveals Mallett. "It's quite unusual – you'll get a conversation which will go from 'what are you working on with the paintings?' to 'how was your gig last night?' and 'how was the audience?'"
His next trick is to tour his work in galleries across the country, so it's just as well he relishes a good opening. "I've done a number of exhibitions, and it's just something I love doing," he adds. "I just like talking about me art."
Mallett's next exhibition is at the Smart Gallery in Batley from May 7 2010. Visit Timmy Mallett art online to see more of his work.
The paintings accompany a full programme of events at Keighley and Worth Valley Railway this weekend. Visit their website for more details.
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