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Firstly, a quick reminder that the doors to our exhibition of recent Bill Peascod painting discoveries opens today (Saturday); fourteen works spanning Bill’s time in Australia and his return after twenty-eight years to his native Cumbria in 1980. The exhibition will run until 28th May and all works are listed in full HERE.

Firstly, let’s start with the late Bill Peascod. Not very long ago, we were offered the opportunity to acquire thirteen paintings by Bill, from a longstanding friend of his. Works spanning his Australian years through to his return to his native Cumbria. Finding one work by Bill is a rare occurrence, finding them en-masse is unrepeatable.

Between the 20th and 24th of this month we’ll be exhibiting at the London Art Fair. This will be the first art fair we’ve exhibited at since last we were there in January 2020; we’ve missed it. On show for the first time will be two sculptures by Cathy Lewis. Cathy must be one of the most accomplished contemporary figurative sculptors at work in the UK today.

It’s been a busy few days at Castlegate, a raft of new work has made its way through the Georgian bright red door in anticipation of finding new custodians; all new works may be seen HERE. Highlights include two Sheila Fell discoveries from the 1950s, including an oil painting, Woman feeding birds in the snow, which formed part of Sheila’s first solo exhibition at Beaux Arts, London in 1955.

Well it can never be said we over-email out, I just realised our last musings were back at the end of November! So, let’s begin 2022 by sharing a quite amazing war-era portrait.  Thelma Bader was the wife of the famous Wing-Commander Douglas Bader, D.S.O., D.F.C. portrayed by Kenneth More in the famous 1956 film, Reach for the Sky.

Well, this has certainly been another "interesting" year. To round it off and take us into 2022, we’ll be exhibiting an ever-changing collection of works, the initial incarnation maybe seen HERE. The gallery is a constant flow of works coming in (both contemporary and Modern British (20th C)) and (thankfully) going out, and we’ll be representing that both online and in-gallery over the coming weeks.

We’re pleased to reveal the twelve works by Sheila Fell that form a focused exhibition of her art from the late 1950s through to the mid 1970s. All may be viewed HERE Of the twelve, six are available to acquire whilst six reside in private collections and are on loan only. Works take the viewer through her relatively early artistic days with Snow on the Mountains, exhibited in 1960, through the heavy impasto period of the 1960s and into the tighter representations style of the 1970s.

With the doors closing to our Norman Cornish exhibition, the gallery is now fully rehung with myriad of artist’s works. Included in those on display are eight new paintings by Selkirk’s finest, Alex Hain, all of which may be seen here. Also recently acquired is a quite wonderful painting by the late Theodore Major, titled Crucifixion in Wigan, it’s a powerful example of such genre by Theo.

Whilst the physical doors open today to our major exhibition, Norman Cornish, Behind the Scenes Revealed, we've made it easy for those of you too far away to visit to enjoy doing so digitally with a 360 degree 3D click and wander experience. You may view it towards the top of the exhibition page or directly from this link HERE Whilst no replacement for an actual in-the-flesh visit, it does allow a very good walk around the exhibition, zooming into the works and seeing them in a hung context.

Norman Cornish, Behind the Scenes, Revealed, is now live online. The exhibition comprises thirty-two works on paper, all illustrated within the 2017 book, Behind the Scenes, with all works coming directly from the Cornish family. The listing online may be seen HERE with a page-turning digital catalogue viewable HERE (which can be expanded to full screen).

Not only do we have our existing exhibition on show, Four Artists Three Dimensions, together with a full mixed gallery hang, we’ve also just taken in a plethora of new works from Helen Fryer, William Reinsch and Sarah Carrington, together with a skillfull, intriguing and unique body of work by recent art school graduate, Alex Appleby.

It was early in April since we last updated people about happenings at the gallery; fear not, as always we’ve been very busy with myriad things, the latest we can reveal here; the exhibition, Four Artists, Three Dimensions is now live online. This is a wonderful collection of works by four hugely talented ceramic artists and sculptors, namely Jason Wason, Jim Malone, Colin Pearson and newcomer David Hochhauser.

We must admit that after being closed for some seven months of the last twelve, we really do hope this is the last time we have to prepare for a reopening! In truth we can’t wait, it’s been too long. As well as reopening with a small focused exhibition of works by the late Bob Crossley, all from 1958-1961, we’ve also this past week had Richard Fitton in-gallery delivering eight new portraits in both oil and charcoal.

After what seems an age, we fling open the door to Castlegate once again on Thursday 15th April. We have much on show, including a room dedicated to eight rare early works from the late Bob Crossley, all dating from 1958-61 and which may be seen HERE. We’ve also produced a small page turner of a catalogue which may be viewed online.

Several things to mention, so let us kick off by saying how proud we are to welcome Katya Granova to Castlegate. About to recommence her MA in Painting at the Royal College of Art (covid-interruptus) Katya initially studied at the Paris College of Art from 2014-15 and thence 2015-17 at the ICA Moscow. We first came across Katya’s work as an entrant to the inaugural Castlegate Prize in 2020, ultimately reaching the final shortlist and one of the works which was in the running to take first place.

January always holds excitement for us, the start of the art season, our exhibition at the London Art Fair. For months we’d planned a showstopper of a stand, the best of British 20th C and contemporary art; however the 2021 fair is now a digital affair later in January, so we thought we’d stage our physical stand at Castlegate, bring London to Cumbria, throw the doors open to a collection of works by names not seen outside of central London in many a year.

We should have opened the doors to Covid Contemporary yesterday. Saturday 7th November was to be the culmination of the hard work of four young artists, Louis Appleby, Alice Campbell, Alex Hain and William Reinsch. Well we may not have been able to welcome many of you across the threshold, but we can do so digitally! We've had a 360-degree walk-round film made, here you can wander around the gallery and take a look at each and every piece of art created by the four, even click for more details etc.

We're very pleased to announce that our latest exhibition, Covid Contemporary, is now live online in readiness for doors open on the 7th November. The full exhibition listing may be seen HERE with a 360-degree click and walk facility available in the coming days for those who may be unable to visit the gallery itself.   With an initial working title of Four go to London, this exhibition has been eighteen months in the making; an exhibition of four young emerging talents planned for July in St James, London; an opportunity to showcase the works of William Reinsch, Alice Campbell, Louis Appleby and Alex Hain.

Now that The Castlegate Prize is over, well at least until 2022, we've rehung the gallery with a plethora of new work, all of which may be viewed HERE.  Included we have two paintings by the late Percy Kelly, originally sold at the Messums London exhibition of 2012 and now repatriated from the US. One is a fascinating very rare abstract harbour gouache on paper and clearly shows Percy's interest in the works of Ben Nicholson.

Well, after almost eighteen months and a pandemic, we can reveal that the winner of the inaugural Castlegate Prize and recipient of the £10,000 award is Sabrina Shah for her painting Bucket List. The exhibition may be seen HERE  together with a video of the exhibition HERE and we've even gone an extra mile and had a 3D walk-round experience produced, viewable on the exhibition page at the top, labelled cunningly "3D Gallery Tour" We've also awarded a special prize of £1,000 to a young artist/animator, Sorrel Milne.