YOUNG Harry Case started drawing at the age of three in the rear of the family barber's shop in College Street where he was born.

And 87 years later he is still painting and exhibiting his pictures as a member of the St Helens Art Club at the ripe old age of 90.

Some of Harry's work can be seen in the club's 75th anniversary exhibition, currently showing at the Rainford Gallery in the Central Library, Victoria Square until Saturday, December. 4.

Now living in Prescot, Harry can clearly remember the founding of the club way back in 1924. He says: "I was a member of the School of Art Sketching Club at the time and a full-time student, while most of my spare time was taken up helping out in my father's shop so I found it impossible to join at the outset. But my father encouraged me to study art and allowed me time off from the shop to attend the classes."

Eventually, Harry did get to join the club and fondly recalls their Friday evening meetings at at the YMCA Buildings.

However, the need to earn a living, forced him to swap his paint brush and eraser for the barber's lather brush and razor. He never lost his love of art though and his profession proved a help rather than a hinderance as he sought to perfect his work.

He says: "I know of no better job, when studying portraiture, than that of a barber. Anatomy of the face and head can be studied at close quarters. When one wields a razor around a man's face many times in a day, all undulations, all humps and hollows are quickly discovered and you know how all the parts fit together."

Harry had first started helping his father as a 'lather boy' at the age of eight, standing on a soap box to prepare men's faces for shaving.

"A barber's job in those days was mainly shaving. If men where 'hoity-toity' they would have two shaves in a week on a Wednesday and a Saturday, but for most folk one per week had to suffice. And a shave in those days cost one old penny so my father had to perform 240 shaves to make a pound!"

Harry re-joined the art club in 1982 and since then has enjoyed even more success, taking part in their annual exhibitions.

Among his works on display in the anniversary exhibition are ''Demolition - Finch's Old Bakehouse in College Street' and 'The Housewife', plus a pastel self-portrait which he painted at the outset of his career as an artist at the age of 20.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.