Eric Tucker was a private man who lived in the same house in Padgate for the majority of his life.
While his family knew he enjoyed art, nobody knew the full extent of his extraordinary talent until one day in 2018.
It was shortly before his death that Eric confessed to his brother that he would have liked to have an exhibition for his work.
Eric Tucker lived in Padgate and worked on his art in secret (Image: Supplied)
“That began the discovery of the fact that my uncle had produced hundreds of paintings of the world he lived in,” said his nephew, Joe.
“We made a promise to him that we would try and arrange an exhibition of his work.”
Eric had created hundreds of stunning paintings throughout his life, depicting working class life in the north west, and particularly in Warrington.
It was shortly after he died in 2018, however, that the exhibition went ahead and launched Eric into the art world.
Eric created hundreds of stunning pieces before he died in 2018 (Image: Supplied)
“We decided to put on an exhibition of his work in his house with no idea of whether or not anyone would come, but fulfilling our promise to him,” said Joe.
“It came out of necessity really. We were thinking how can we show his work and I think I had the idea of doing it in his house.
“As soon as I thought that it made sense, because all of this work was created here, and it was all stashed here.
“He’d lived in that house basically all his life, so it made sense that it was a good place to show his work and to introduce him to people.”
His art depicts working class life in the north west (Image: Supplied)
The exhibition went ahead that same year, and the family had no idea if anyone would even attend.
But, to their surprise, many people did.
“It proved a huge success in its own right and we had people queuing around the block to come and see the exhibition of his work,” said Joe.
“I think that really showed us there’s a real interest here in his work. We had no idea up until that point whether there would be.
“That was the beginning of his kind of totally unexpected and sort of remarkable debut – his posthumous entry into the art world.”
Joe has now written a book which explores his uncle’s life (Image: Supplied)
Now, Joe has written a book about his uncle’s life, exploring who he was and how be became the man he knew.
“I thought ‘I’ve got to tell this story – I’ve got to tell his story’,” said Joe.
“I realised that because we’d discovered all this artwork and, because I’d completely underestimated him, I also realised that I thought I understood him and knew him but I thought I don’t really.
“So, part of the idea of writing the book was to discover how had he become the man that I knew, who was quite the character.”
The Secret Painter by Joe Tucker is set to be released on January 30, and to mark the launch Waterstones, in Golden Square, will be holding an event.
On January 29 at 7pm, Joe will be leading an In Conversation event alongside award-winning poet and novelist, Andrew McMillan.
Tickets to the launch event are £5 each and can be bought on Waterstones’ website.