A Summer Selection

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 his work around a figurative narrative, but with a very individual method of expression.

Now an invited member of The Contemporary British Portrait Painters, Craig's work has undertones of both Stanley Spencer and Lucian Freud; Craig’s works often have a feel, through tone and subject matter, of a Britain of the 1940s and 50s, an era Craig immerses himself in through his daily life.

We’re very proud to be working in partnership with Craig and bringing his unique paintings to a new and growing audience

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.  

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. Tom McGuinness also studied at Darlington School of Art and became, through self education, immensely knowledgeable about art history and the works of other artists throughout the centuries. 

Tom's style was very much his own; distinctive, engaging and innovative, his work is instantly recognisable and captivating, often depicting the reality of life working the coal seams; the oppression and the claustraphobia as well as life above the pit; the life he lived and in which he painted for over six decades.

Tom died in 2006 aged seventy nine, leaving a unique artistic legacy, one we believe will continue to increase in importance and merit as the years flow on. 

Born in Northumberland in 1886, Ernest Procter was the son of a distinguished scientist and staunch Quaker. In 1907, he came to Newlyn to study at the Forbes’s School of Painting where he fast became a star student. After three years there, he went to Paris to attend the Atelier Colarossi, where he was joined by Doris (‘Dod’) Shaw, whom he had met at the Forbes’ school. The couple married in Newlyn in 1912, but did not settle there until after the First World War, Ernest having spent the War years in the Friends Ambulance Service.

In 1920, Procter and his close friend Harold Harvey set up a school of painting of their own in Newlyn, offering tuition in oils and watercolour, studying the Figure, Still Life and Landscape.

Dod and Ernest Procter were among those who painted religious scenes for the church of St. Hilary (near Penzance), at the request of Rev. Bernard Walke. These can still be seen there today.

In 1934, Procter was appointed Director of Studies in Design and Craft at Glasgow School of Art. He retained his base in Cornwall and continued to exhibit all over the country. Having long suffered from high blood pressure, the combined stress of the job and the travel doubtless contributed to his tragically early death, aged forty-nine, only a year later in 1935. 

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.

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.