June Bennett ( Paintings )

The sea is very important to June Bennett. Born in Grange over sands, she has 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 her two children have grown up, she has returned to her first love – painting – her paintings which are mostly oils, have a jewel like quality.  [ TOP ]

Percy Kelly ( Painting )

Percy Kelly was born in Workington on the industrial west coast of Cumbria in 1918. From a poor working class family he left school at 14 and worked for the Post office. After the war he returned to the postal service becoming sub postmaster at Great Broughton. However, his talent for painting and drawing had been noted as exceptional at every stage and finally at the age of 42 he went to Carlisle College of art for his NDD in lithography and printed textiles.
Sir Nicholas Sekers of Sekers Silk Mills gave him his first exhibition after graduating and he quickly began to build a reputation with an exhibition in London in Sloane Square and the Fermoy Gallery in Kings Lynn.
But just as his reputation was building, he decided that he didn’t want to sell his work and no longer wished to exhibit. He became a recluse, ran away from Cumbria first to live in Wales and then in Norfolk. Since the mid seventies, he was only to have 2 more exhibitions and those through real necessity – one at Abbott Hall Kendal and the other at a private house in Troutbeck when his second marriage had failed.
He died a lonely old man in 1993 leaving a wealth of largely undiscovered treasures behind which span 50 years. Much of his work draws on the rich industrial landscape of Cumbria as well as the fells of the Lake District. Since this death there have been 3 exhibitions at Castlegate House Gallery in Cockermouth, all of them sell-outs and a Biography was published in 1996  [ TOP ]

Bill Peascod ( Painting )

Peascod was born in Maryport in1920, the son of a miner on the West Coast of Cumbria. He left school at 14 to follow his father down the mine. In 1937 after a night shift he got on his bike and cycled out to the lake District fells. “That journey was to change the course of my whole life” he was to later write in his biography “Journey After dawn” He became one of the leading names in climbing – pioneering many of the classic climbs now in the guidebooks. He emigrated to Australia in 1952 to better himself and missed his fells every day he was there. He turned to painting and won many awards including a traveling scholarship to Kyoto Art College where he met his second wife Etsu. He became well known in Australia as a painter with his works being in the major collections in the national galleries. He returned to Cumbria in 1960, living and painting on the northern slopes of Skidaw. He died in 1965 while climbing with Don Whillans. He featured in the channel 4 series Lakeland Rock with Chris Bonnington  [ TOP ]

Charles Oakley ( Painting )

Charles Oakley was born in Manchester in 1925. He studied at The Slade and became senior lecturer in Painting in Belfast School of art. After many years in Ireland, he came to northern England in 1974 as principal lecturer in Fine Art at Newcastle Polytechnic.
He retired in 1984 to become a full time painter. He lives and works in Cumbria
His work is avidly collected. Beautifully crafted, he enjoys mysteries, intrigue and particularly spectacular failures in history. He builds up a web of clues in the work and leaves many questions unanswered. He has had exhibitions in major galleries and this year won the Singer and Friedlander Competition  [ TOP ]

Karen Wallbank ( Painting )

Karen Wallbank is a hill farmer. Born in Leeds, she was outstanding at school in art and went on to Jacob Kramer College in Leeds. Destined to continue to Goldsmith’s College, London, she met George Wallbank, a farmer, by chance and decided to settle on the Lancashire/ Cumbria/Yorkshire borders. Despite her work on the farm and producing 3 children, she never stopped painting and her big misty landscapes have become her trademark. She could not conceive of a life without painting despite heavy commitments on the farm. She was a winner of the Laing competition in 1990 and has exhibited widely  [ TOP ]

Michael Bennett ( Painting )

Michael Bennett was born in Windermere and went to Lancaster and then Leicester Colleges of art. He was senior Lecturer in fine art at Bretton Hall for some years before moving back to Cumbria to paint full time. He first lived on the coast at Seascale and now lives with his wife June on the Solway coast. He also runs an antiquarian art book business  [ TOP ]

Sheila Fell ( Painting )

Sheila Fell was born in Aspatria in 1931. Her father was a miner and mother a seamstress. She went to Carlisle College of art followed by St Martins, London. As soon as she left college, she began exhibiting in London with some measure of success and was befriended by LS Lowry – they often went out painting together in Cumbria and Yorkshire. She built up a good reputation being elected RA in 1974. She sadly died in 1979 at the age of 48 leaving a fine collection of oil paintings and drawings, which were the subject of a large retrospective of her work, which went out from the south Bank in 1990.  [ TOP ]

Marie Scott ( Painting )

Marie Scott has a special place at Castlegate House because the gallery discovered her in the Laing competition in 1990. Her work has strengthened and developed and she is now showing in London with no small measure of success.  [ TOP ]

L S Lowry ( paintings, drawings,prints )

Christine Woodside RSW RGI ( paintings )

Charles C MacQueen RSW RGI ( paintings )

Patricia P Sadler ( paintings )

Edward Hughes ( pots )

Christine Hughes ( paintings )

Helen Tabor ( paintings )

John Emanuel ( paintings )

winifred nicholson ( paintings )
1903 - 1981

Sarah Carrington ( paintings )

Winifred Nicholson ( paintings )

Peter Colquitt ( sculpture )

peter quinn ma ( )

caroline bailey ( Paintings )

Helen Tabor ( )

Kenneth Draper RA ( )

Mary Potter ( )