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

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Percy Kelly was born in Workington, Cumbria in 1918, being one of eight siblings. Despite an early aptitude for drawing, Percy left school at 14 to work for the Post Office. Interrupted by war, he served in the Royal Signals, where his talent for draughtsmanship was utilised in the production of maps.  In 1946 Percy returned to Post Office employment, and obsessional painting, working at the Post Office until taking up a full time place at the Carlisle College of Art and Design from 1961 until 1965. In the early 1950s, Percy submitted works to the Royal Academy, Royal Institute and Royal Society of British Artists; all were accepted, and from 1956 until 1963, Percy was a member of The Lakes Artists Society.

Percy’s first solo exhibition was in 1966 at the Rosehill Theatre, Whitehaven, courtesy of Sir Nicholas Sekers, as too was an exhibition in Sloane Street in 1968. In 1969 a solo exhibition of his work was held at the Fermay Gallery, Kings Lynn, and in 1976, a seventy-painting exhibition was held at Abbot Hall, Kendal. His final solo exhibition was held in Troutbeck, Cumbria, 1984.

During his life, Percy rebuffed many approaches to exhibit his work, amongst them from the Crane Kalman Gallery in London, Tib Lane Gallery, Manchester, Goldmark Gallery, Uppingham, and not least from Chris Wadsworth at Castlegate House Gallery.  There was much interest in his work during his lifetime, but despite this, only five exhibitions were held; Percy refused to sell all but a very small number of his works.

Percy moved to Norfolk in 1980, and died there in poverty in 1993. After many successful exhibitions at Castlegate House Gallery, the works of Percy Kelly have been shown in two highly successful solo exhibitions at Messums, London.

Born in Pennsylvania in 1928 to working-class parents, Andy Warhol has become known as one of the most influential and important artists of the 20^th century. Though he was diagnosed with Sydenham’s chorea- a disease of the nervous system- which left him occasionally bedridden, he spent this time drawing, listening to the radio, and educating himself on pop culture. Warhol would later describe this period of his life as extremely influential on his later body of work.

In 1945 Warhol graduated from Schenley High School and won a Scholastic Art and Writing Award, before going on to study commercial art at the Carnegie Institute of Technology. During this time he also served as the art director of the student art magazine, illustrating two covers which are believed to be his first two published works. After graduating he moved to New York City and began a career in magazine illustrating and advertising.

Throughout the 1950s, Warhol began developing his signature ‘blotted line’ technique whilst he was working as a shoe designer alongside his commercial work- applying ink to paper and then blotting it while it was still wet. In 1956 he was included in his first exhibition as part of a group exhibit at the Museum of Modern Art.

Warhol truly stepped into the public eye in the 1960s as his work became more and more recognized; the famous Big Campbell’s Soup Can was featured in an article in Time magazine, which led to it becoming one of Warhol’s most prominent motifs. He continued to have more appearances at exhibitions and museums throughout the decade, becoming arguably the most famous emerging artist of the second half of the century. His fascination with Hollywood and figures of pop culture influenced his art heavily, with paintings of celebrities such as Marilyn Monroe becoming pop culture staples.

Partially due to an infamous assassination attempt in 1968, and due to a dive into filmmaking and theatre production, the final two decades of Warhol’s career were less intense. However, collaborations with such artists as David Hockney and Cy Twombly, and tie-ins with celebrities such as a portrait of Prince for Purple Rain kept his name mainstream throughout those years.

Warhol died of heart issues in 1987, aged 58.

Trevor Makinson (1926–1992)

Painter and teacher, born in Southport, Lancashire. He attended Hereford School of Art and Slade School of Fine Art. Went on to lecture at Glasgow’s School of Art and the University. Professor Makinson, who was a member of Glasgow Art Club, showed in mixed exhibitions at RA, RP, RSA, UA and elsewhere. He had strong connections with Hereford, being a member of the Farmers’ Club there, showing with Herefordshire Arts and Crafts and Wye Valley Art Society and having a series of solo shows at Hereford Art Gallery from 1944; it holds his work. There were other one-man shows in the provinces. Public galleries in Buxton, Glasgow, Newport, Salford and elsewhere hold examples. Lived in Glasgow.

Text source: 'Artists in Britain Since 1945' by David Buckman (Art Dictionaries Ltd, part of Sansom & Company)'

1912 - 1977

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.

John Emmet Sheridan was born on June 14, 1877, in Tomah, Wisconsin, attending Georgetown University and graduating in 1901.

During World War I, he created many patriotic posters in support of the United States' war effort as part of the committee of artists that also included Charles Dana Gibson (creator of the Gibson Girl) and James Montgomery Flagg (creator of the iconic Uncle Sam recruiting poster).

Sheridan was art editor for the Washington Times (predecessor of the now-defunct Washington Times-Herald) and worked for the San Francisco Chronicle in the development of its first color Sunday supplement. Between 1931 and 1939 he produced 13 cover illustrations for The Saturday Evening Post.

Sheridan died on July 3, 1948 in New York. 

Anthony Whishaw RA studied at Chelsea School of Art from 1948 to 1952 (awarded NDD) and the Royal College of Art, London from 1952 to 1955, when he was awarded the ARCA (first class hons), the RCA Travelling Scholarship, an Abbey Minor Scholarship and a Spanish Government Scholarship.

His work deals with explorations of memory and experience. On the edge of representation, varying in intent, scale and depiction, it seeks to reconcile illusion and allusion, the abstract and the figurative, past and present pictorial languages to create unforeseen visual experiences.

His first solo show was held at the Libreria Abril, Madrid in 1956. Subsequently, he had regular exhibitions at Roland, Browse and Delbanco, London, throughout the 1960s and went on to have numerous solo shows throughout the UK at venues including the ICA, London (1971), the Oxford Gallery, Oxford (1978) and Kettle’s Yard, Cambridge (1982). He also exhibited in many key group exhibitions from 1952, and has participated regularly in the Whitechapel Open, the Hayward Annual, and the John Moores Painting Prize.

He has many awards to his name, including the RCA Drawing Prize (1954), Perth International Drawing Biennale Prize (1973), South East Arts Association Painting Prize (1975), Arts Council of Great Britain Award (1978), Greater London Council Painting Prize (1981), Abbey Premier Scholarship (1982), John Moores Minor Painting Prize (1982), Lorne Scholarship (1982-3), Joint winner Hunting Group National Art Competition (1986), and Korn Ferry Carre Oban International Picture of the Year in 1996.

He was elected a Member of the London Group in 1979, an Associate Royal Academician in 1980, a Royal Academician in 1989 and a Member of the Royal West of England Academy in 1992. Between 1958 and 1992, he taught on an occasional basis at Chelsea School of Art, and St Martins.

He lives and works in London.

1909 - 2001 - biography pending 

1920 - 1985
A nationally renowned climber and painter, William (Bill) Peascod was born in Maryport, Cumbria, in 1920. Entering the pits, like his father, at 13, it was to be a bike ride into the fells one early morning, aged 17, at the end of a night shift that was to change Bill forever. His autobiography, “Journey into Dawn” recounting his progression from miner, to climber and artist is a must, yet hard to obtain, read for anyone interested.

Bill began to walk the fells, meeting walkers and climbers alike, all fellow enthusiasts. It was this latter group that Bill became part of, with his natural strength and ability leading him to become one of the dominant names in British climbing in late 30s / early 40s.

Qualifying as a mining engineer, Bill emigrated to Australia where he discovered another great passion and natural skill, painting. He became well known as an experimental landscape painter, even, during the 1960s, producing wonderful mixed media works with their surfaces burnt to change the appearance and nature of some of the painted areas.

Despite his success in Australia, including exhibitions in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane, Bill longed for his native Cumbria, and returned to the UK in 1980. Here he continued to paint, inspired by the fells he’d got to know before leaving 28 years earlier.

Sadly, Bill died of a heart attack whilst climbing in Wales in 1985. His legacies are many and varied, but none less than the wonderful and unique works he produced in paint.

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.

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. 

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.  

Ivon Hitchens Art and Paintings For Sale

Ivon Hitchens embarked on his professional artistic career in the 1920’s after studying and graduating from St John Wood School of Arts and the Royal Academy schools in London.  Involved with the avant-garde movement in the city, he became a founding member of the Seven & Five Society alongside other renowned artists such as Henry Moore, Barbara Hepworth and Ben Nicholson. 

During the Blitz, his neighbour’s house was destroyed and part of his own studio damaged, cementing his decision alongside many of his peers, to seek safety away from the air strikes and moved to the English countryside.  Hitchens moved into a gypsy caravan located on a six acre plot of woodland in 1940 and remained there for the next 40 years.  This move was responsible for what is now known to be Hitchens most pioneering abstract work.  He became deeply absorbed in the English countryside and started to create large paintings on landscape canvases panoramically portraying the woodland surrounding him.  Using a series of large brushstrokes, dabs and sweeps, he created the effect of energetic movement though his process was always carefully considered.  His work appeals to the senses, conveying textures, smells and atmosphere almost harmoniously, by using form and colour.

Ivon Hitchens’ work is held in in some of the most prestigious public collections, including the Tate, National Gallery of Scotland and the Courtauld Institution in London; he represented Britain at the Venice Biennale in 1956 and was awarded a CBE in 1958.  He passed away in West Sussex in 1979.

Alasdair Gray was born in Glasgow in 1934 into a working-class family, his father a factory worker and his mother working in a clothing warehouse. After years of moving around the country due to the evacuation efforts in the Second World War, Gray’s family settled down in Riddrie, where he attended Whitehill Secondary School and won prizes for art and English- an early indicator of his artistic interests. These were furthered by his fondness for the works of Edgar Allen Poe, which became a great influence on his works later in life.

When he turned 18 he enrolled in the Glasgow School of Art, graduating with a degree in Design and Mural Painting, then working as a freelance artist, specialising in murals and gaining recognition for their intricacies and his eye for detail. Outside of murals, perhaps his most well-known body of work is from his time as Glasgow’s ‘artist recorder’, creating hundreds of drawings of notable people, places, and the general public. Over the decades, his work would be shown in such notable galleries as The Tate, Scottish National Galleries, Victoria and Albert Museum, and the Hunterian Museum.

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.

1888 - 1962. Harold Dearden was a painter principally in in oil and watercolour and additionally, a draughtsman in ink and wash. Dearden studied at Rochdale School of Art under H Barrett Carpenter, 1905–10, then at the Royal College of Art for five years under Gerald Moira. Dearden, a strong draughtsman, went on to become head of Swindon Art School for 30 years from 1920 and was president for a time of Swindon Artists’ Society. He exhibited in London and provincial galleries and Swindon Museum and Art Gallery holds his work. Courtesy of ArtUK

Born in 1926, Robert Dawson early-developed a fascination and talent for art which led to him being offered a scholarship to Stoke-on-Trent College of Art at 17. After a hiatus as a solicitor’s clerk, Dawson studied English and Art at Clarendon College in Nottingham, thence becoming a primary school teacher whilst continuing to pursue his love of painting in his spare time. This passion led to him becoming a member of the Staffordshire Society of Artists and being the focal point of a number of exhibitions. This culminated in Dawson winning the Holbrook Prize at Nottingham Castle Museum in 1973, and again in 1974.

Robert Dawson died in 1997, leaving a substantial body of work and a lasting impression on his peers, being known for the personal and intimate nature of his artwork.

Sir Kyffin Williams, RA, was an admirer of Robert Dawson’s work, and was quoted as stating in interview in 2000:

“Robert Dawson was always one of the quiet men of art, a man of great modesty. Unlike so many of the younger artists today, he did not aspire to fame or artistic acclaim but quietly contented himself with wring out his own problems in his own honest way.

Because he painted what he loved he was able to communicate that love to others. For this reason, I believe, his work will always be appreciated long after so much of the facile creations produced today have been forgotten."

Helen Bradley was born in Lancashire in 1900, and her fascination with art began not many years later. Despite this early interest, and despite winning the John Platt scholarship at Oldham Art School, Helen Bradley did not start painting seriously until she reached her sixties. Spurred on by her grandchildren’s curiosity in what life was like when she was a child, as well as motivation from her friend and fellow artist L.S. Lowry, Bradley began painting with a focus on reflecting on her own childhood memories, as well as a recurring character called “Miss Carter”- a woman always wearing pink.

Though her popularity began increasing in 1965, the first of a series of books written by Jonathan Cape in 1971 led to her works becoming highly sought after. Helen Bradley’s paintings have been shown in numerous exhibitions, such as at the Saddleworth Art Society, the Salford Museum and Art Gallery, the Yale Center for British Art, and the Carter Gallery in Los Angeles.

Bradley died in July 1979, shortly before her investiture as an MBE.  

1931 - 2021