A 2017 graduate of the prestigious Duncan of Jordanstone Art School in Dundee, Alice Campbell embodies all that is great about the true resurgence in British contemporary painting. Inventive, skilled, mature and aesthetically exciting, Alice's work has both the energy you'd expect from a immediate post-art school artistic life and the maturity to recognise influences and produce something truly unique in itself. 

Based in Glasgow, Alice could almost be described as a latter-day Scottish Colourist; her ability to deploy strong colour whilst avoiding distraction and confusion shows a maturity and talent beyond her years. 

Awards to-date include:
Alexander Graham Munro Travel Award,  Royal Scottish Society of Painters in Watercolour, 2018
Ninewells Hospital Radiology Art Prize, Dundee, 2017
Royal Scottish Society of Painters in Watercolour invited artist for the ‘Student Award’, 2017
John Kinross Scholarship, Royal Scottish Academy, 2017. Award based in Florence, Italy, October – December, 2017.
Watermark Award, presented by the Royal Scottish Society of Painters in Watercolour, 2015

Exhibitions to-date:
RSA John Kinross Scholarship group show, Italian Cultural Institute, Edinburgh, 2018
RSW open exhibition, Edinburgh, 2018
Gallery Heinzel, New Faces exhibition, Aberdeen, 2017
DJCAD degree show, 2017
‘Sneaky Peeks’, DJCAD reception, Dundee, 2017
‘Multi’, DJCAD reception, Dundee, 2017
Higher Bridges Gallery, Enniskillen (N.Ireland), 2016
‘Selection Box’, Tin Roof, Dundee, 2016
Laurel Gallery, Edinburgh, 2016
Velvet Easel, Edinburgh, 2016
RSW open exhibition, 2015
Edinburgh Macmillan Art Show, Edinburgh 2014/15

Collections include:
Royal Scottish Academy Collection
Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art Collection, (University of Dundee)
Ninewells Hospital Art Collection, Dundee

Born in 1931, Sheila Fell grew up in Aspatria, a typical West Cumbrian mining village. Whilst gaining a place at the Carlisle College of Art at 17, within two years she had obtained  a place at St. Martin’s School of Art, London. Here, she befriended Frank Auerbach, amongst other contemporaries, and went on to teach at the Chelsea School of Art.

Sheila Fell held her first exhibition in 1955, courtesy of Beaux Arts, London. It was from this that she met L S Lowry, who purchased a number of paintings from this exhibition, and many more in the years that followed. This was to be a friendship that lasted until Lowry’s death in 1976. Indeed, he assisted her financially to the tune of £3 per week for two of her early London years.

Acclaimed by critics, collectors and her peers, she began exhibiting at the Royal Academy in 1965, being elected an Associate  Member of the Royal Academy in 1969, and a fully blown Member of the Royal Academy in 1974.

Sheila Fell died in 1979, aged just 48. It is likely that she only painted some six to seven hundred paintings during her life, but what arguably makes them so powerful is her almost unique ability to convey the emotion inherent in a landscape; not just the landscape itself, but the impact it has on you. As Lowry suggested, Sheila Fell was arguably the greatest landscape painter of her age.

Many of Sheila’s paintings are held in major public and private collections throughout the UK, including the Tate Gallery, Walker Art Gallery and in the Government Art Collection.

Colin was born in 1923 and had an illustrious career, not only as a ceramic artist, but also as a teacher of the same. Studying at Goldsmiths, London, working under the legendary Ray Finch at Winchcombe Pottery, he went on to teach at both Camberwell College of Arts and the Medway School of Art. There are many well known potters and ceramicists who owe a debt of gratitude to Colin for all he imparted and inspired.

Developing his craft, Colin became famous for his winged vessels, works that became more sculpture than studio pottery. Experimentation with glazes produced some astounding glaze colour and texture. Nothing ever awkward, everything balanced, potting like no one else then or since, Colin deserves the reputation he has, and more besides. Colin sadly died in 2007. 

1921 - 2016 - Constance Ann Parker was born in London and studied painting at the Royal Academy Schools from 1946 to 1951. While at the RA Schools Parker won four silver and two bronze medals and she also took evening classes in sculpture at the Regent Street Polytechnic School of Art. Parker exhibited paintings and sculptures with the New English Art Club, with the Royal Academy and with both the Royal Society of Portrait Painters and the Royal Society of British Sculptors, of which she was a fellow. In 1974, Parker became the librarian at the RA and eventually a lecturer, archivist and travelling exhibitions organiser with the Academy. From 1952 to 1976, Parker served as the honorary treasurer of the Reynolds Club, the alumni society of the RA Schools, and in due course became its chairperson. Parker wrote a number of books on art including Mr Stubbs the Horse Painter in 1971 and A Picture of the RA published in 1985. A retrospective exhibition of Parker's sculptures was held in 1977 at the Belgrave Gallery in London.

Joan Eardley was born in Sussex in 1921. A tragic childhood, with her father committing suicide when she was just nine years old, she moved with her Mother and sister, Patricia, to Blackheath, London in 1929.

Showing an early aptitude and enthusiasm for art, Joan attended the local art school in Blackheath, but soon won a position at the prestigious Goldsmiths College. Following a family move to Glasgow, Joan secured a place at the Glasgow School of Art in 1940, a move which was to significantly influence the course of her future life and art work. Here she was awarded the Sir James Guthrie prize for Portraiture.

Following spells away from Scotland after graduation, Joan returned and set up home and studio in Glasgow in 1949. Close to the tenements of Townhead, Joan began to paint the children from the “slum areas”. These are regarded as amongst the most powerful and prized of her life’s work; depicting the deprivation and yet humanity within the faces of the children.

In the early 1950s, Joan purchased a cottage at Catterline, a small coastal village close to Stonehaven. Here she began to experiment with both land and sea-scapes, working with paint to depict her surrounding world with a life and energy few had managed before.

Joan was made and associate member of the Royal Scottish Academy in 1955, and voted a full member in 1963. Sadly, it was in that same year Joan lost her battle with cancer and died, aged just 42.

Regarded as one of the UK’s most influential and highly respected artists of the twentieth century, her work is held by most of the UK’s best regarded public and private collections, including the Royal Scottish Academy, National Galleries Scotland, Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art and the National Gallery.

When scouring the UK looking for modern British (20th century) works for the gallery, we often come across wonderful artworks which are unattributed or by less well-known names than we usually deal in, but which have strong appeal and ooze that "50s and 60s" style which revolutionised British art. We've decided rather than letting these works pass by, we'll acquire them and bring them to the gallery and provide others with the opportunity of owning some wonderful work but benefiting from a more modest budget.  

REPRESENTATIVES OF THE ESTATE OF THE LATE NORMAN CORNISH
One of the most celebrated of the mining painters of the last century and this, Norman Cornish was born in 1919 in Spennymoor, County Durham.

As with most of his generation, he began work in the pits at an early age, but was driven to paint at a similarly early age, and was accepted into the Settlement at the age of 15, later to become known as The Pitman's Academy.

Exhibiting with his peers at the Laing Gallery, Norman Cornish held his first exhibition in 1959 at the Stone Gallery, Newcastle, one of, if not the leading contemporary art gallery in the North. There he exhibited with LS Lowry and Sheila Fell, and in 1963 was the subject of a TV documentary by a young Melvyn Bragg about both Norman and Sheila.

In 1966 Norman Cornish left the work of a pitman and became a full time artist. Continuing to live in and amongst the mining community continued to provide him with a seemingly endless source of material from which to create his paintings. His work is a wonderful record of the life of a northern mining community, at work and at leisure, and one that is highly sought after across the UK and internationally. Norman sadly died on 1st August 2014, aged 94.

Castlegate House Gallery is proud to represent the estate of Norman Cornish, working with his family, and has a number of Norman Cornish paintings for sale depicting scenes from his time living and working in the colliery town of Spennymoor. If you would like more information, please call 01900 822149.

June Bennett 1935 - 2013

June Steer was born in Grange-over-Sands in 1935, being the second of four sisters, their father being the professional at Grange over Sands-Golf-Club.

June showed a great talent for painting in her teens, encouraged by her uncle, Tom Armes, himself a professional artist. After leaving school at Ulverston Grammar, June began a five year course studying Art at Lancaster College of Art, and in her final year, Leicester College of Art. It was during her studies at Lancaster that June met Mike Bennett, with the two married in 1959. In these early years, June began to exhibit her work, and in 1957, she had work shown at the annual exhibition of the Society of Women Artists at the Mall Galleries, London.

June continued to paint after her college years, but it was whilst she, Mike and her two sons, Justin and Giles, now themselves professional artists, were living in Yorkshire, that she began in earnest to develop her skills toward a new medium, namely silver and gold. To this degree, June attended a Silversmithing course at Wakefield School of Art.

Soon Mike left his teaching post at Bretton Hall, to become a full-time professional artist. The family lived briefly in Lincolnshire, before moving back into "home territory" and to Seascale on the West Cumbrian coast. It was at this point that June began to exhibit her jewellery in a wider capacity, including such venues as the Goldsmith's Hall London, Park Square Gallery Leeds, Bluecoat Gallery Liverpool and Abbot Hall, Kendal, becoming a Committee Member at Northern Arts, and the Guild of Lakeland Craftsmen.

Her jewellery was always free, richly textured with obvious references to the natural world; plants, landscape, poppy fields etc., and in many ways a foretaste of her painted works to come.

It was at this point, around 1985, that June began to paint again. She abandoned her jewellery workshop, disposed of all of her equipment and immersed herself in Oil and Turpentine, working alongside Mike; a true artistic partnership, but very much their own people and artists.

Colour and texture were transformed into her individual, inspired view of the world. as Mike says, "it was as if the floodgates had suddenly burst open, and paintings flowed out of her in a frenzy of activity." Bold, richly textured and colourful works began to pile up in her studio.

June's first solo exhibition was to be held at Castlegate House Gallery in 1988. Ten further highly successful shows followed over the following two-plus decades, with her work also being exhibited in London, Edinburgh, Cambridge and the Laing Gallery Newcastle. Works were also acquired for the House of Lords collection, Tullie House Carlisle, The Copeland Collection and many private collections within the UK, mainland Europe, the US and Australia.

June liked to work "on the spot", working on canvas or making colour studies for development back in her studio. Her first exhibition at Castlegate House was such a success that June was able to acquire her "travelling studio", a bright orange VW Camper Van, her pride and joy, enabling her to work out in the open in almost all conditions!

June loved the sea, the estuary and its surrounding landscape. She saw them with a very personal and powerful vision. She was able to transform a seemingly ordinary landscape into something vibrant, exciting and visionary. Perhaps her greatest legacy was her ability to make people look at the world with new eyes. Seeing rhythms, textures, colour and patterns that had eluded them previously. People who own her work often say that her works lighten their lives, giving off a warmth and power that can change their mood.

June was a dedicated artist, never happier than with brush in hand. In her final year, against all the odds, she continued to grapple with pictorial ideas and compositions. She finally completed, three weeks before she died, what was to be her final painting; a new vision of trees on the other side of the Solway coast. This was to be an oft-returned to theme, but each time, over the years, returned with a new perspective, freshness and delicacy. The painting is exhibited here as June's Trees; Last Painting.

Alongside her land and seascapes, June also produced some fine portraits, both as commissions and as her own artistic expression. A number of these works can also be seen within the exhibition.

Mike and June Bennett have been represented by Castlegate House Gallery for over twenty five years. Indeed, many will have seen our sixty-year retrospective for Mike late last year. It's a great shame that we weren't able to hold this exhibition for June whilst she would have been able to walk amongst the works herself, in her trademark bright pink lipstick. This is a celebration of not just June's work, but of June; from the remarkably early paintings of the 1950s, signed in her maiden name of June Steer, right up to her very last work. It's a vision of June, and of her vision of the world around her, in all of its moods, shapes, colours and lights. 

Leon Kossoff Art and Drawings For Sale

Leon Kossoff was born in Islington, London in 1926, living and working in the city until his death in 2019.   

In 1943, after returning to London following evacuation during the Second World War, Leon Kossoff obtained a place at the Saint Martin’s School of Art; somewhat interrupted by National Service, he was to return in 1949, supplementing his course by taking part time classes at Borough Polytechnic under the tutelage of David Bomberg. It was at these studies that Leon was to meet and befriend a young Frank Auerbach. Both artists were to be heavily influenced by Bomberg and undoubtedly in some ways, each other.

Kossoff studied at the Royal College of Art from 1953 to 1956, and it was upon graduation that, again as with Auerbach, Kossoff was nurtured by Helen Lessore at her Beaux Arts Gallery in London, arguably one of the most important commercial sites of young artistic talent in the mid part of the twentieth century. He began teaching art at Chelsea School of Art and Saint Martin’s School of Art and was to befriend and spend time with other emerging talents of the British art scene, including Francis Bacon, Lucian Freud and Keith Critchlow.

As with Auerbach, Leon Kossoff’s work is typified with studies of the human form and the area of north London where he lives and works. His use of heavy impasto in painting and strong, powerful lines in his charcoal portraiture are instantly recognisable.

Regarded as one of the true talents to emerge in Britain during the twentieth century, Leon Kossoff kived and worked in north London until his death in 2019. Major exhibitions have been held, such as in 2007 at the National Gallery in London and his work is held in many of the world’s most respected public and private collections. 

William Plumptre

1931 - 2021