Gallery Artists

Ceri Allen studied Fine Art Painting at City & Guilds School of Art, London. Her tutors included Peter Coker, Carel Weight and Humphrey Ocean. She has produced many commissioned works and is represented in private collections in the UK and USA and also in Carlisle City Museum & Art Gallery and St Mary's Hospital, Paddington, Art Collection.  Ceri has received several awards from the Cumbrian Open Exhibition including first prize in 2007.

We first came across Louis in the summer of 2014, at his graduation show at Wimbledon College of Arts. Individual certainly describes Louis’ work, with a depth and complexity that transcends the oft apparent simplicity of composition. Louis is a master of taking perspective and deconstructing parts, rearranging elements to unsettle the composition whilst at the same time gelling it all together; it’s a thoroughly intriguing approach and one that you find yourself getting more and more from the longer you live with a work.

Having just graduated in summer 2021 with a BA in Painting from the final year of Wimbledon College of Arts, Alex is a great example of the resurgence of painting in British contemporary art.  Alex's main influences are derived from popular culture and undoubtedly the artworld which he is firmly a part of. Alex considers he was born to a painter and as such art these influences run deep within his family. To quote Alex, "a broad stroke of art practices excited me.

. Jake Attree was born in York in 1950, studying at York school of Art from 1966 until 1968, then from 1968 to 1971 Jake attended Liverpool College of Art and subsequently attended The Royal Academy, London, from 1974 until 1977, being awarded the Creswick Landscape Prize, The Landseer Figurative Prize and the Bronze Turner Medal. Jake is predominantly a figurative painter with his....

One of the most internationa'ly lauded of living artists, Frank Auerbach was born in Germany in 1931, however, in 1939 his parents sent him to England to escape the Nazis as part of the Kindertransport Programme. Even at a young age, his artistic ability was evident. He went on to study at St Martin’s School of Art in London from 1948 to 1952. After that he studied at the Royal College of Art in London from 1952 to 1955.

1902 - 1990, a British painter, etcher and engraver. Frederick studied at Leicester College of Art and subsequently won the Prix de Rome in 1927 for his painting, Flight into Egypt, some five years after his brother Robert had achieved the very same accolade.  Exhibited widely during his life, including at the Royal Academy, works by Frederick are held in many public collections, including the V&A  

Michael Ayrton was a British artist and writer born in 1921. He studied at the Heatherley School of Fine Art and the St John's Wood Art School, and later with the Eugène Bergman in Paris. Eriudite and prolific, his output consisted not only of paintings, literature, and sculpture; but also of set design for theatre and opera. He was the art critic for the spectator from 1944 – 1946, whilst working as a broadcaster for the BBC specialising in.

Francis Bacon was one of the dominant figures of British and International post-war art, and his works remain unmistakable for their contorted emotion and visceral physicality. “I would like my pictures to look as if a human being had passed between them, like a snail leaving its trail of the human presence... as a snail leaves its slime,” he once said. Among his signature motifs were screaming and disfigured heads, grappling homosexual lovers, and flanks of meat, and his style is characterized by its flat backgrounds and sense of motion, derived from the frequent use of photography and film stills as sources for portraiture.

William G Bell 1928 - 2006 William (Bill) Bell was born in Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria, in 1928.  Bill spent his working life surrounded by the heavy industry of the Vickers shipyard in Barrow, an environment which clearly influenced his paintings. He was exhibited widely, including the Royal Academy and Royal Scottish Academy, and typifies the mid to late twentieth century Northern School.

John Bellany was born in Port Seton, a coastal town in East Lothian, Scotland. Born into a fishing family, both his father and paternal grandfather captained fishing boats. Regarded as one of the most notable British artists of the 20th century, he was viewed as an outstanding student at Edinburgh College of Art from 1960 to 65, during this time gaining the Andrew Grant Scholarship in 1962, taking him to Paris. He went on to win the Burstain Award to attend the Royal College of Art in London in 1965, where he studied under Carel Weight and Peter de Francia.

Sarah Jane Bellwood is an award-winning Lancaster based artist, one with an ability to convey exquisite detail seldom seen through paint. Sarah turns what may appear to be the common-place into studies of intracacy and detail that draw you in, further and further.

The sea was very important to June Bennett. Born in Grange over sands, she lived by the sea most of her life. She went to Lancaster and Leicester Colleges of art where she met her husband Michael. For many years she was known as a silversmith and her jewellery was widely collected but since...

Mike Bennett was born in Windermere, Cumbria in 1934. Studying at Lancaster and Leicester Colleges of Art from 1950-56, he was to meet June, a fellow student during this time, with them marrying in 1959 after Mike concluded a two year spell of National Service. Already aware of, and influenced by a new wave of British artists, such as Vaughan, Hitchins and Sutherland, Mike spent much time during his college years painting at home for his own pleasure and development, and a number of paintings from this era are shown within the exhibition.

1931 - 2021

One of the most influential British artists at work in the twentieth century, David was born in Birmingham in 1890. Initially studying art in London at the City and Guilds, David Bomberg was to study under the highly respected Walter Sickert at the Westminster School of Art, subsequently gaining a place at the Slade School of Art. It was here that David studied under the famous Henry Tonks, alongside such soon-to-be-famous names as Stanley Spencer, Ben Nicholson and Paul Nash.

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

John Bratby  RA  1928 - 1992 Born in Wimbledon in 1928, John studied at the Royal College of Art from 1951 to 1954. So well respected was his work there, that within three years he had taken a post as a tutor at the same college. It was during the 1950s that John’s work began to achieve critical acclaim. Its mix of impressionism and the depiction of daily life and images led to the phrase “kitchen sink realism” being coined for his work, and many thereafter.

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.

Graduating in 1999 from Edinburgh University with a sell-out degree show, Sarah Carrington began her artistic career based in Edinburgh.  Her work focuses on the Scottish coastline, a passion she has had since childhood holidays on the west coast and sailing excursions around the Hebrides.  Her paintings are often large in scale (up to 6 x 12 feet long), colourful yet at the same time subtle.  Her understanding of the nature of the sea and sky is evident in her work.

Halima is an internationally renowned and respected sculptural artist. Brought up in the North West of England, she studied 3-D Design at the University of Central Lancashire before embarking on what has become a hugely successful career as an artist.Halima uses a variety of mediums to produce her work. From clay, to marble, to bronze and even glass, her ability to create the most intricate and sophisticated, often geometric designs is truly astounding.

Stephen Chambers is one of the most critically acclaimed and respected artists at work in the UK today. A member of the Royal Academy of Arts, Stephen Chambers studied at Winchester School of Art from 1978 to 1979 and then at St Martin's School of Art, London from 1979 to 1982.

Peter Coker was born in London in 1926. Studying initially at St Martin’s School of Art from 1941, Coker moved with his family to Manningtree in Essex in 1962. Whilst continuing to teach at St Martin’s (post-graduation) Peter also had occasional tenures as a teacher of painting at Colchester School of Art. Throughout his career, Peter Coker held solo shows at many of the capital’s most prestigious commercial galleries, including the highly respected Zwemmer Gallery.

Not only one of only eighty members of the Royal Academy of Arts but also until 2017, the first female Keeper of the Royal Academy in its almost 250 year history, Eileen is one of the foremost names in British contemporary art. As Keeper, Eileen was in charge of the RA Schools, a prestigious position she held from 2010......

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.

A truly emerging talent within the contemporary art scene, Malcolm came to painting through an unusual route. Originaly from Newcastle, raised in Leeds, now living and working in rural France after many years building a reputation in Cheshire; after studying photography at art college, Malcolm went on to work within Fleet Street, rising towards the top of his profession and winning the Press Photographer of the Year award in 1997.

William Crosbie was a highly regarded Scottish painter (1915 - 1999), graduate of the Glasgow School of Art with numerous exhibitions including Perth Museum and Art Gallery, Ewan Mundy and The Scottish Gallery

Born in Cheshire in 1912, Bob Crossley was to spend much of his childhood and formative adult years living in Rochdale, to the north east of Manchester. Leaving school aged 14, Bob trained as a sign writer before entering the RAF during the second world war. Upon demobilisation he attended drawing classes and joined the Rochdale Art Society and was accepted into the Manchester Academy of Fine Arts, building on his apparent skill and success with his first London solo exhibition at the Reid Gallery in 1960.

1920 - 2014

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.

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.

1894 - 1973

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 secure

Mary Fedden OBE, RA, was born in Bristol in 1915, studying art at the famous Slade School of Fine Arts between 1932 and 1936. Mary Fedden became a tutor of painting at the Royal College of Art, teaching David Hockney, amongst many others. In 1951 Mary married the world renowned artist Julian Trevelyan, who was to figure regularly in her own paintings.

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...

Richard Fitton is a Contemporary British Figurative Artist, whose skills include Painting, Drawing, Printmaking and Sculpting. Born in Oldham 1990, Richard gained Professional Recognition in 2012 when he became the youngest ever member to be elected to the Manchester Academy of Fine Arts, the first whilst still a student. Richard Fitton Has continued to excel over the years with exciting group and solo exhibitions regularly being held.

Colin Frooms 1933 – 2017 Born in London in 1933, Colin originally studied at the Hornsey College of Art, then latterly studying at the Royal Academy of Arts schools from 1957 to 1961, graduating in fine art, painting. Colin had a very successful career as an artist, with numerous exhibitions over the decades, with a retrospective at the Royal Opera Arcade Gallery, London 

Sir Terry Frost (RA) 1915 - 2003 To become regarded as one of the most influential of mid to late twentieth British abstract artists, Terry Frost was born in Leamington Spa in 1915. After release from active service upon the end of the second world war, Terry studied art at Camberwell College of Art whilst also spending 1946 at the St Ives School of Painting, a move that was to guide his future artistic life and endeavours.

Born and brought up in Cumbria, Helen left the county at the age of 18 to study Geography at Manchester University.  After years living in and exploring various parts of the UK she has now returned, living and working in Ireby, west Cumbria.  The land sandwiched between the Solway and the 'Back 'o' Skiddaw' is one she knows intimately and has been hugely influential in her work. Helen's landscapes are highly evocative, full of.

Gore was born into the world of art; his father, Spencer Frederick Gore, was a painter, President of the Camden Town Group until his early death in March 1914, and his mother, Mary Joanna (Molly) Kerr, was a dancer from Edinburgh.As a young man Gore's ambition was to be a philosopher, but as a student at Trinity College, Oxford (following in the steps of his great uncle Bishop Charles Gore), he soon found that his real passion was for drawing and painting at the Ruskin School of Art which he attended almost daily.

Born in 1988 in what was then still the Soviet Union, Katya was to initially train in Social Psychology at the St Petersburg State University. In a change of direction Katya moved to France to study at the Paris College of Art from 2014-15, thence 2015-17 at the ICA Moscow, studying “New methods in contemporary art” and from 2017 in London, where she plans on staying having just completed her MA in painting at the Royal College of Art.

Duncan Grant was born in Aviemore, Scotland in 1885. Educated in England from a very early age, Duncan Grant was to attend Westminster School of Art from 1902, subsequently studying at the Slade School, and also in both Italy and Paris, where he met and spent time with both Matisse and Picasso. Introduced to the famous Bloomsbury group, Duncan Grant was to become a central and important figure in the movement, and was to have a relationship with Vanessa Bell, then and to become an artist of international standing and sister of Virginia Woolf, also a group member.

Alistair Grant  1925 – 1997  RBA, RSA, FRCA Born in London in 1925 to mixed French and English parents, Alistair Grant studied painting at the Birmingham College of Art between 1941 and 1943. After serving in Egypt during the Second World War, he contin...

. 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.

Martin Greenland must be regarded as one of the UK’s most respected painters. His works are held internationally and in 2006 Martin achieved critical acclaim when winning the John Moores Painting Prize in its 24th year, one of the UKs premier art prizes; previous winners including David Hockney and Euan Uglow. Living and working close to Windermere, Martin has combined success in respected London commercial galleries with retaining artistic roots within his home county, maintaining his position as a member of the Lake Artists Society and his recent-years exhibition involvement with Tullie House Museum and Art Gallery, in Carlisle.

Discovered in his shared studio in Selkirk, on the Scottish Borders, Alex is a young artist and the latest in a line of family members who have all become professional artists. Painting from the heart, and gut, painting drives Alex, each and every day. Suffering a serious road traffic accident, it was art that became his recuperation, self medicating through paint. His use of texture creates a depth well beyond his years.

Edgar Lionel Hereford (1886 - 1953) was born in Inverkip, Gourock, Renfrewshire. Hereford formed part of an important small circle of artists that existed around Charles Rennie Macintosh following the Scottish artists's move to Port-Vendres near Collioure on the Mediterranean coast of southern France. Hereford probably knew Mackintosh through drinking with him at the Blue Cockatoo in Chelsea in the early 1920s. At this date Hereford shared lodgings at 28 Draycott Gardens with the painter Rudolph Ihlee and the two artists travelled to Collioure together in 1922.

Mosek Josek Herman (Josef) was born in Warsaw into a Jewish family in January 1911. His childhood was one of adject poverty and, at the age of 13 he initially trained to be a typesetter, however by 1930 attended the Warsaw School of Art, leaving in 1932. In 1938 to escape Nazi persecution he moved to Brussels, however two years later with Germany about to invade Belgium he fled to France and then onto Glasgow. In 1940 Herman discovered he had lost his entire family in the Holocaust, he channelled his grief into his work, producing ‘memory paintings’ that evoked his childhood and Jewish heritage, along with compositions addressing the horrors of the pogroms.

One of the most respected and influential of British artists of the twentieth century, Patrick Heron was born in Leeds in 1920 but spent much of his life in London and then Cornwall, where many of his most influential works were created. It was in St. Ives, Cornwall, that Patrick was to meet and befriend Ben Nicholson and Barbara Hepworth, amongst other contemporaries of that era, becoming part of what was to become regarded as one of the most inventive and influential British “collectives” of the last century.

To become one of the most influential British artists of his generation, Roger Hilton was born in Middlesex in 1911. Studying at the Slade under Henry Tonks, Roger went on to study in Paris before in his immediate post-war years, teaching in Dorset. Hilton moved to Cornwall in 1965 after spending much of the previous decade within the county. Roger Hilton became an intrinsic part of the Cornish/St Ives artist "colony".

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.......

Our usual route to spotting art-talent is when on our travels or visiting art school graduation shows. The other route is where artists approach us; this occurs on average four or five times each week, with artists looking for one-off shows or wider representation; however, in the last ten years we’ve probably accepted an opportunity presented in that manner no more than five or six times. David was one of those. We initially went to visit him at his studio on the South Bank, the converted old TV studios immediately south of the Thames, next to the National Theatre.

David Hockney  1937 David Hockney was born in Bradford, West Yorkshire, in 1937. After attending the Bradford College of Art, he obtained a place at the Royal College of Art, London, in 1959, where he was tutored by both Ruskin Spear and Carel Weight. He graduated...

Ken Howard OBE, RA, was born in England in 1932. He has become one of the most celebrated and respected artists at work today in the UK. Ken Howard studied at the Royal College of Art from 1955 to 1958, and first exhibited at the New English Art Club in 1959, an institution he was to become President of in 1998. Accepted as a member of numerous prestigious art societies, including the Royal Institute of Oil Painters and the Royal Society of British Artists, he was to become a member of the Royal Academy in 1992.

John Hoyland was born in England in 1934 and was educated in art from an early age. After graduating from the Sheffield School of Art and Crafts and then moving to the Sheffield  College of Art and the RA Schools in London, Hoyland travelled overseas, hitch-hiking in southern France- a stark contrast to the bleak surroundings of where he grew up, with the landscapes coming as something of a revelation to him. However, his true influence came from an annual London show that featured predominantly large abstract paintings of at least 30 square feet in size- from here, his inspiration for the artwork he would become known for was born.

Born in Wallasey in 1953, Edward was to become one of the most talented of UK studio potters. Studying firstly at Cardiff School of Art, and thence the Bath Academy at Corsham Court, Edward was to follow up with a period working with the legendary Ray Finch at Winchcombe Pottery, in Gloucestershire. Obtaining a Japanese government scholarship in the late 1970s, Edward was to spend almost two years at art school in Kyoto, learning and absorbing an oriental approach to the art of pottery-making that mirrored the inspiration of the likes of Bernard Leach in the early part of the twentieth century.

Born in London in 1883, despite an early engineering apprentice, Ihlee enrolled in Slade School of Fine Art in 1906, graduating three years later and receiving multiple prizes for his artwork. Success followed, with two exhibitions at the Carfax Gallery between 1912 and 1914.  Upon the outbreak of the First World War, Ihlee worked as an engineering draughtsman, though immediately returning to his art career after the ending of the war.

One of the most respected and acclaimed portrait artists of his age, David Jagger was born near Rotherham in 1891. After studying at the Sheffield School of Art, David moved to London where he began to build a reputation as somewhat of a society portrait artist, exhibiting at the Royal Institute of Oil Painters, The Royal Academy, The Royal Society of Portrait Painters and the Royal Society of British Artists.  Building upon his reputation from his studio in Chelsea, David Jagger was to become acclaimed not only for his works of notable figures of the day, including Winston Churchill and Robert Baden-Powell, but also for his paintings of female sitters and his often haunting self portraits.

A deserved member of the Royal Academy, Chantel Joffe is one of the most exciting figurative painters at work in Britain today.  She has an impressive academic background having graduated in Fine Art from Glasgow Art School (1988-91) and receiving an MA in painting from the Royal College of Art (1992-94).  Following this, she was also honoured with the Delfina Studio Trust Award and the Abby Scholarship respectively.

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 ...

Born in Hutchesontown in Glasgow in July 1859, moving to Paisley to live with his brother when orphaned at an early age. William Kennedy attended the Paisley School of Art. He moved to Paris in the early 1880’s where he studied at Acadamie Julien. Upon returning to Scotland he established a studio in Stirling where he gained a reputation for......

Dame Laura Knight, DBE RA RWS (1877 – 1970) was an English artist who worked in oils, watercolours, etching, engraving and drypoint. Knight was a painter in the figurative, realist tradition and who embraced English Impressionism. In her long career, Knight was among the most successful and popular painters in Britain. Her success in the male-dominated British art establishment paved the way for greater status and recognition for women artists.

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.

1892 - 1962

George Washington Lambert was an Australian artist, known principally for portrait paintings and as a war artist during the First World War. He was born in St Petersburg, Russia, the son of another George Washington Lambert of Baltimore, Maryland, and arrived in Australia in 1887. Lambert exhibited his first picture at the Royal Art Society in 1894. He spent a year in Paris before....    

One of the most important and influential of Post-War British artists, Peter Lanyon was born in St. Ives, Cornwall in 1918. Principally an artist of landscape and seascape genres, Lanyon was to move into abstraction / abstract expressionism as the post-war years progressed. Studying under Victor Pasmore at the Euston Road School, Lanyon was to thence study from 1936-37 at the Penzance School of Art, meeting and befriending both the renowned Ben Nicholson and Barbara Hepworth.

1938 - 2010

Cathy Lewis must surely be one of the foremost figurative sculptors at work in the UK today. A graduate of Glasgow School of Art, Falmouth School of Art and the University of the West of England, Cathy has built a reputation for producing exquisite and striking contemporary social commentaries through sculpture. 

Alan Lowndes 1921 – 1978 Born in Stockport in 1921, Alan left school at 14 to become, ironically, an apprentice decorator. That particular burgeoning career was interrupted at the outset of war, and Alan was to serve for several years in the British Army during the second world war. On return to the UK, Alan attended evening classes, studying art at Stockport College, committing to a full time course in the late 1940s.

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Born into an artistic family in Edinburgh in 1885, John MacLauchlan Milne was the son of the Scottish landscape painter Joseph Milne. Studying at the Edinburgh School of Art, he went on to serve in the Royal Flying Corps in the First World War. Between 1919 and 1932 John spent a substantial part of the each year in France, initially in Paris and then in Cassis at the same time as Duncan......

Theodore Major 1908 - 1999 Born into somewhat humble beginnings in Wigan in 1908, Theodore attended a local art school from 1927 to 1932, going on to teach at the same institution from 1930 to 1950. Theodore Major exhibited widely within public galleries, including Nottingham, Bolton and Manchester. He was also a key exhibitor at Arts Council sponsored exhibitions at Tullie House, Carlisle, and Blackburn Museum and Art Gallery.

revor 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

Living near Wigton, in Cumbria, Jim is one of the most internationally celebrated and collected UK potters at work today. Potting in the true traditions of British pottery, using his self-built wood fired kiln to achieve a variety of truly wonderful forms and glaze finishes. Born in 1946, Jim attended the Camberwell School of Art, London from 1972 to 1976. During this time, he spent time on placement working with Ray Finch at the legendary and important Winchcombe Pottery, in Gloucestershire.

Born in 1926, Tom McGuinness was to become one of the "Bevan Boys" during the Second World War, working in the coal mines as a vital part of the war effort, keeping both industry and communities across the UK functioning.   Along with his contemporary, Norman Cornish, Tom McGuinness was a "graduate" of the Spennymoor Settlement, a mid-century arts centre designed to provide and encourage a greater understanding and involvement of the arts within the County Durham mining community.

John McNairn was born in the Scottish Borders in 1910, enrolling at The Edinburgh College of Art in 1927; an especially fertile period in the college’s history and then followed in the custom for the most talented Edinburgh students to go abroad to continue their development. In Paris in the early 1930s John McNairn made the unusual choice of attending the Academie Scandinave, attracted by the presence of Othon Friesz.

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.

1949 - 2020 A highly successful and respected painter, of both portraiture and landscape, Howard Morgan was in 1986 elected as a member of the Royal Society of Portrait Painters. His commissions were numerous and included both HRH The Queen and the Queen Mother.  Works by Howard Morgan are held in many prestigious public collections, including the National Portrait Gallery, London.

Born in Leeds to Polish Jewish immigrants, Philip Naviasky won a scholarship to the Leeds School of Fine Arts in 1907 when he was 13 years old. In 1912, aged only 18, he was accepted into the Royal Academy Schools, the youngest ever student at that time. He went on to gain a Royal Exhibition award from Board of Education for three years at the Royal College of Art. On completion of his studies he returned to Leeds, taking up a teaching.

Born in Kilbarchan, Renfrewshire in 1924, Angus saw active duty during WWII. Upon demobilisation he enrolled in the Hostpitalfield School of Art, Arbroath, in 1947; here he was to meet fellow artist, Joan Eardley. Subsequently gaining a place at Glasgow School of Art, that meeting and enduring friendship with Joan was to have a profound impact upon Angus. He and Joan became close friends, working together in the poverty of Glasgow, capturing the children of the slum areas.

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Born in Oxford in the latter stages of the nineteenth century, Winifred was an early starter at art school, at just eleven. In 1920 she married the thereafter and now internationally renowned artist Ben Nicholson, whom was to credit Winifred with much of his development in the use of colour. Jointly part of the “St. Ives” movement (although arguably Winifred was more on the periphery) Ben was to leave Winifred for the famous sculptor Barbara Hepwoth, also a member of the “group”.

Ben Nicholson was born in 1894 to Sir William Nicholson and Mabel Pride, also artists. He trained at the Slade School of Fine Art in 1910, meeting Paul Nash, with whom he formed a close friendship with. In 1920 he married Winifred Roberts - a colourist, with whom he moved to Cumberland. The two painted still-lifes and landscapes, spending summers in Cumberland and winters near lake Lugano in Switzerland. Ben split up with Winifred in.

1929 - 2019

A true northern talent, Ian's ability is to convey, through paint, how it was to stand by the land or sea; be battered, at times, by the elements. Ian paints in the open, it's the only way he knows. He doesn't work from photographs back in the studio, he stands with canvas and easel on the fell-side, beach or cliff tops and paints. It's a combination of that uncompromising approach and his natural ability that produce astonishing work, often almost sculptural in his use of paint.

Hughie O’Donoghue was born in 1953 in Manchester of British-Irish descent, spending much of his youth in County Mayo. Studied at Goldsmith’s College, University of London, graduating in 1982. The discovery of different histories of place, events and memories, such as that of his mother’s family in County Mayo, or of his father’s experience as a soldier in WW2, has contributed to his approach to making work. He once explained that.

Robert Organ was born in 1933, in Hutton in Somerset. He studied art at The Royal West of England College of Art and in 1952 won a place at the Slade School of Fine Art under the tutelage of George Sweet and Claude Rogers. Contemporaries of his were Francis Hewlett, Philip Sutton and Euan Uglow. In 1958 he married fellow artist Valerie Buston and they moved to Cornwall where he taught painting at Falmouth School of Art, alongside Francis Hewlett.

Stefan Orlowski is arguably one of the most talented exponents of classical meets contemporary painting at work in the UK today. Born in 1985, Stefan was to initially study for his BA in Fine Art at the University of Aberystwyth before attaining his Masters in Fine Art at the highly regarded Wimbledon College of Art in 2012. It was just after graduation from Aberystwyth that Stefan, in 2008, was to win the Young Artist Award at the prestigious national Lynn Painter Stainers prize.

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.

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.

William Charles Penn  1877-1968  RP, ROI, R.Cam.A. William Charles Penn was a painter and influential teacher at Liverpool School of Art from 1911 until after World War II. Born in London, he studied at the Lambeth an...

Born in 1871, Samuel Peploe was to become one of the most influential Scottish painters of the last century, one of a group of four artists who were to become known as the Scottish Colourists. Born in Edinburgh, briefly living and working in Paris for two years prior to the first world war, Samuel Peploe was to holiday in northern France where, influenced by the strength of light and colour, he began to incorporate such strong bold colour into his compositions, something he was to later become recognised for in his still lifes along with his fellow Colourists, Ferguson, Cadell and Hunter.

Winner of the Turner Prize in 2003, elected a member of the Royal Academy of Arts in 2012 and awarded a CBE in 2013, Grayson Perry is of the most well know, respected and recognisable of British artists at work today. Born in Essex in 1960, after completing an Art Foundation Course at Braintree College, Grayson studied for a BA in Fine Art at Portsmouth, graduating in 1982.  Perhaps initially best known for his often controversial pottery, his commentary on modern life, its injustices and hypocrisies has transcended into many forms, with his incredible large and powerful tapestries being at the current fore.

William Plumptre

Bertrand Py was born in Belfort, France, in 1895. Soon moving to Paris, he began showing interest in art from a very early age, eventually leaving his education in classical studies to focus on painting full-time, joining the National School of Fine Arts, although only after lying about his age in order to secure a place in the school. He claimed his inspirations included........

1935 - 2022

A young artist who is perhaps one of the most exciting new talents at work in the UK today. An astounding ability with figurative work, work which conveys as much about Will as artist as it does about the subjects he paints. Working from his studio in Essex, Will is what the art world classes as an "outsider", an artist with huge talent and yet not the product of formal art school training; from October 2022, that wi

A highly respected British artist, born in 1953, Shani was to graduate from St. Martin's School of Art in London before returning to her native Wales to continue her artistic career. Regarded as one of the foremost contemporary figurative painters of her generation, Shani was awarded an MBE in 2006 and is a member of the Royal Cambrian Academy.  Shani has had and continues to have a long and illustrious exhibition h

Born Peter Richmond in Isleworth, Middlesex in 1922, Peter went on to add Miles to his given name in the 1980’s, thereafter being known as such. Initially studying at Kingston upon Thames school of art (now known as London South Bank University), Miles Richmond spent the duration of the Second World War working on the land as a conscientious objector, much to his family’s chagrin; his father worked for the Admiralty and his brothers served in the armed forces.

Born in Lancaster in 1967, Chris attended the Storey Institute, Lancaster & Morecambe College, Art and Design, before going on to study at the prestigious Falmouth School of Art. We first came across Chris' work whilst in Cornwall. Not your typical Cornish tourist painting, but more a northern house, in its semi rural surroundings, at night. It was the use of light, and tone that amazed us, and it's that use of light and tone that stands Chris' work apart from most.

Painter, born in Troon, Ayrshire. Rowlett’s landscapes and seascapes were singular in their bold brush strokes, sweeps of the palette knife and thick impasto, capturing the essence of a scene. He studied at Grimsby School of Art, 1960–2, Camberwell School of Art, 1962–5, and Royal Academy Schools, 1965–8. At Camberwell he won the Samuel Jones Fellowship, 1965–7, in 1966 gaining the David Murray Travelling Scholarship and Auerbach Criticism Prize.

Born in 1904, Frank Runacres was an English painter who studied at a number of prestigious colleges, including Saint Martin’s School of Art, the Slade School of Fine Arts and at the Royal College of Art between 1930 and 1933. Between 1937 and 1965, Frank Runacres exhibited eighteen paintings at the Royal Academy as well as at the Leicester Galleries, London, the Manchester City Art Gallery and the NEAC.

1909 - 2001 - biography pending

Born in 1970 in Cambridge, Jenny Saville has become one of the most respected, valued and thought-provoking of artists to emerge into the British and international art world in the last fifty years.  Upon graduation from Glasgow School of Art in 1992, Jenny Saville was to attract the attention of Charles Saatchi, the leading British collector of contemporary art. Participating in the exhibition Young British Artists III at the Saatchi Gallery, London in 1994, Jenny was to receive critical and commercial acclaim, becoming a recognised artist within what loosely became known as the Young British Artists (YBAs).

Born in Vienna, Austria in 1922 to Jewish parents, Hans Schwarz’s early life was a tumultuous one. After he lost his mother when he was 12, he was forced to drop out of art school in Vienna due to the Third Reich’s annexation of Austria in 1938. Shortly after he departed Austria on the Kindertransport and moved to England- his father, however, was executed during the Holocaust in Auschwitz. After being released from internment on the Isle of Man as an enemy alien in 1941, Schwarz entered the Birmingham College of Art, and after graduating worked in a commercial art studio until.

Born in Orkney, Scotland and now living in East Lothian, Marie studied art at Aberdeen under the celebrated Scottish artist William Burns. Her work being extensively and successfully exhibited for many years, Marie has shown work with many prestigious galleries and societies, including the Royal Scottish Academy and the Scottish Society of Artists, of which she is a member. The latter having been awarded the Wren & Bell Prize in 1998 and the Frith Gallery Prize the following year.

John Shelton, 1923 - 1993, was initially to study and graduate from the Burslem School of Art, where he studied with and was a friend of another notable Staffordshire artist, Arthur Berry. In 1945 John was accepted into The Slade School of Fine Art, completing his studies by 1950, with a hiatus of a couple of years between. Shelton resided and worked in Fitzrovia, London in the mid to late 1940s and was in the circle of John Minton and Robert Colquhoun, the latter who was particularly influence Shelton at this time.

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.

A quite exceptional self-taught artist, Craig was born and brought up very close to Manchester; relocating in his late teens to Brighton, Craig began to express both himself and those around him through paint, building a solid reputation as a painter of portraiture. Returning recently to the North West, Craig continues to focus....

Born in 1934, Ian Stephenson studied Fine Art at Kings College, Durham. Following graduation, his first exhibition was held at the New Vision Centre in London in 1958 followed by a solo show at The New Art Centre in 1962.  Ian returned to Durham to take up a teaching post alongside fellow artists Richard Hamilton and Victor Pasmore. Regarded foremost as a leading abstract artist, Ian Stephenson became latterly.....

Threadneedle Prize finalist David Storey is a British figurative painter. His psychologically charged paintings are about memory, with half-remembered people and places emerging from complex layers of texture and colour.  David says, 'Personally, I find working with memory very therapeutic as well as creatively invaluable. I become haunted by the image I'm developing and it's tremendously satisfying when I manage to get the milky idea from the back of my mind onto the canvas.

John Stroomer is an accomplished international potter with an insatiable passion for his work; its conception, the process, the execution and ultimately, the end result.  A potter for over twenty five years, in his latter-day work John has striven for perfection in the use of often volatile Crystaline-Glazes.   

Rebecca Swainston’s work is expressive, vibrantly colourful and psychologically charged featuring powerful and memorable figures with animals, objects and intricate patterns. Her skilled draughtsmanship shows itself throughout in the vitality and responsiveness of her line and the variety of her mark making. Rebecca exposes the human condition; its.....

Helen Tabor was born in Middlesex but has lived in the Scottish Borders with her partner and three children for more than twenty years. She graduated in 1981 from York University, travelled widely to India and Bhutan where she worked within the voluntary sector. Having gained her post graduate certificate of education in York in 1984, she taught Art, Drama and English, first at Boroughbridge School in North Yorkshire and then at Paro High School in Bhutan.

John was born into a typical poverty stricken family in an economically depressed Oldham in 1924. As the only surviving son past infancy, John was expected to leave school at 14 and start "bringing some money in". This he did, working in a variety of jobs for the next four decades, whilst continuing to indulge his passion for painting. Often seen with paper and pencil, he even designed local railway advertising posters.

1912 - 1977

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 20th 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.

Benjamin was born in Cornwall in 1970, attending Falmouth School of art and design before embarking on a career in illustraion in London. Returing to his native Cornwall in 2004, Benjamin has developed into one of the most respected contemporary land and sea-scape artist of the region, with works often taking on an almost Turner-esque sky, sea and land in flux quality.

We recently travelled to visit Jason at his studio, just outside St Just in Cornwall; I think it must count as the most idyllic studio location we’ve ever encountered, helped no doubt by the clear blue sky echoing the tones of the sea. Jason is a ceramic artist and sculptor at the very top of his discipline. Recognised internationally as one of the foremost ceramic artists at work in the UK today, Jason was born in Liverpool in 1946, working at the famous Leach Pottery studio from 1976 to 1981 before embarking on his own adventure, setting up his own studio that.

Carel Weight  1908 – 1997  CBE, RA, RWA, RBA, LG Born in Paddington, London in 1908, Carel Weight studied at the Hammersmith School of Art from 1926, where he met and befriended Ruskin Spear. He then went on to study at The Goldsmiths College until 1932...

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.

My work is landscape based, about the experience of actually being in a place. I spend a great deal of time working on location often returning to the same piece of landscape again and again over a long period of a time. Watching changes that the weather and the season have on a familiar landscape is important to me. When I begin working in a chosen landscape, I spend time looking, trying to understand the essence of the place.

Kyffin Williams 

1927 - 2006 Born in Leeds in 1927 to Polish Jewish parents, Joash Woodrow was number seven of nine siblings. Studying art at Leeds College of Art and from 1950-53 Joash was to win a scholarship to The Royal College of Art, where is contemporaries included Peter Blake, John Bratby, Leon Kossoff and Frank Auerbach. Returning north and back home after graduation, Joash was to fall into a somewhat reclusive lifestyle in the decades which followed, albeit one where he found solace and meaning in his paintings and drawings.