WORK BY ACCLAIMED ARTIST MARGARET CHAPMAN, WHO ONCE LIVED WITH JOHN LENNON AND STUART SUT CLIFFE, NOW AVAILABLE ONLINE

The works of an internationally renowned artist, who once lived with John Lennon, are now available online for the first time.

Margaret Chapman who lived in Birkdale until her death in 2000, had her work sold all over the world and was often compared to LS Lowry with her scenes depicting Edwardian streets.

Known as Duckie during her time at Liverpool College of Art – from her maiden name of Duxbury – Margaret lived with John Lennon and former Beatle bassist and painter, Stuart Sutcliffe, in their flat on Gambier Terrace.

Mosaic artist, Ed Chapman, said that his mother did not talk about living with them that often, but she described John as a “very nice polite bookish guy with glasses, who was always there with a quip or snide comment.”

He said: “She always remembered them with a smile. She would talk about Paul and George coming around and climbing up the wooden fire escape and coming in through the window; often in their drainpipe trousers.

“Mum said they were always very polite and would come to rehearse and would often play Monopoly – they were notorious for cheating.

“She even lent John her copy of Catcher in the Rye because he hadn’t read it – she never got it back off him.”

With Lord Street and Southport’s very own beach featuring in her work, Margaret was exhibiting in at Darwen Library in the late 1960s when her work was spotted and she began making money out of her painting.

During the 1970s her work would often sell for thousands of pounds, but now, many of her 500 masterpieces are being recreated as prints for the first time.

“Her existing prints are being remastered, plus an extensive number of paintings that have never been seen before will be available on the new website.

Margaret’s son Ivan, who lives in Churchtown, has developed the website. He said: “Since she died people from around the world have been asking where they can obtain her work. She sold in more than 50 countries globally and so it’s great that her many fans now will be able to get their hands on a piece of her art.

“She was very successful for a few years in the 1970s and many thought that she and LS Lowry were contemporaries even though my mother was more than 50 years younger.

“She found Southport, the Promenade and Lord Street in particular an enduring inspiration for her work and she created many paintings of the town as well as towns all over Lancashire and the North and sometimes London.”