A LOCAL artist's evocative portraits of bygone Bolton are to be published in a new book.

John Chapman, who has lived and worked in the area for more than 30 years, has made a career of painting Lancashire scenes from the past -- with Bolton high on his list of favourites.

"I have been fond of painting from a very young age," said John. "I just drifted into painting scenes that I remembered from memory. I started off painting scenes from further back in history, like Edwardian street scenes, but then I thought about pictures that I had in my head from my youth, and started painting them."

John's paintings are, he admits, "unashamedly nostalgic," with affectionate representations of the great age of steam, the northern landscape of the 1950s, or simply the hustle and bustle of rainy streets. The book, John Chapman's Lancashire, has more than 100 prints from his work over the last 30 years, with scenes from Manchester, Wigan, Preston, Blackpool and of course Bolton.

"My favourite part of Bolton was the Churchgate area and Deansgate. They seemed to retain much of the history and feeling of the town, but there are other parts of Bolton that I would like to paint at some time."

"The dramatic and beautiful landscape arond Bolton is something that has attracted me for a long time, but now it can be difficult finding the time in my schedule to sit and paint just what I want."

John is certainly kept busy. Recent exhibitions of his work have sold out in days, and his pictures have adorned Wedgwood porcelain. His time now is spent working largely to commission and travelling the country painting a wider range of subjects. At the heart of his work, however, is the lasting engagement with the northern landscape of his youth.

"There is nothing to compare with the landscape of the north, and there is a romance to some of the scenes I paint, which other people remember as well."