Title: Mary and the Way Gang

Artist: STANSON (Ron Lawson)

Price: £45 unframed | £70 framed

Medium: Fine Art Print from Original Oil Painting

Size: 20 × 16 inches

Details:

Fine art print from the original oil on canvas painting, Mary and the Way Gang, part of STANSON's The Engaging Gaze collection.

Original painting: 150 × 100 cm (Sold).

Standing resolutely on the railway tracks, a heavy sledgehammer resting across her shoulder and a red signalling flag in her hand, Mary commands both the landscape and the viewer's attention.

Behind her, fellow members of the railway permanent way gang continue their demanding work against the atmospheric backdrop of Britain's wartime industrial landscape.

During the Second World War, women took on essential roles maintaining the nation's railway infrastructure, helping to keep vital transport networks operational at a time of extraordinary national demand.

Mary embodies the physical strength, determination and independence of these often-overlooked women. Her uncompromising stance and penetrating gaze challenge conventional representations of women in industrial history.

The composition deliberately places Mary at the centre of her own story. She is neither a passive historical subject nor simply a symbol of wartime service, but an individual whose presence demands recognition.

Part of The Engaging Gaze, this painting celebrates the strength and humanity of the women whose labour sustained the industrial connections between the steelworks, railways and shipyards of North East England.