Auction alert: Northern Art

Ever since we lived in Todmorden, we’ve been great fans and collectors of contemporary Northern art and Northern fine art painters, in particular, such as Peter Stanaway, Will Turner, Geoff Key and Olivia Pilling. This is why we just had to highlight the upcoming Northern Art – Live Online auction.

It takes place on Thursday 10^th March 2022 from 11am. It’s being held by Wilson55 Auctioneers & Valuers (previously Peter Wilson Fine Art Auctioneers) in Nantwich, Cheshire. There will be 187 lots and we’ve included a few by our favourites below.

Buyer’s premium inc. VAT/sales tax: 26.40%
Online commission inc. VAT/sales tax: 5.94%

Lots purchased online with the-saleroom.com will attract an additional charge for this service in the sum of 4.95% of the hammer price plus VAT at the rate imposed. You can register and bid live through their website at no extra charge.

We can offer UK in-house shipping for smaller items, please contact us. For larger items and furniture please find our recommended couriers

Lot 5: Northern School (20th century) “Miners”
Unsigned, oil on board. Dimensions: 61cm x 67cm (24in x 26.5in)
Estimate: £300 – £500

Lot 13: L.S. Lowry R.A. (British 1887-1976) “The Reference Library”
Signed in pencil in the margin, with the Fine Art Trade Guild blind stamp, from the edition of 850, limited edition print. Dimensions: image size 24cm x 35cm (9.5in x 13.75in)
Estimate: £1,500 – £2,500

Lot 68: Liam Spencer (British 1964-) “Mancunian Way at Night”
Initialled, oil on board. Dimensions: 19.5cm x 24.5cm (7.75in x 9.5in)
Estimate: £500 – £700

Lot 73: Geoffrey Key (British 1941-) Northern townscape
Signed and dated 28.6.19, pen drawing. Dimensions: 26.5cm x 17.5cm (10.5in x 7in)
Estimate: £300 – £500

Lot 87: Helen Bradley M.B.E. (British 1900-1979) “Early November at Blackpool”
Signed and with fly insignia (lower left), with the artist’s handwritten narrative on verso – “It was early November at Blackpool and the weather was still mild, so we went for our last walk through the Enchanted Garden and on to the lane. There George and I saw two rabbits, we would have liked to chase them, but Aunt Mary called to Mother to call us back. It was nearly tea time and Grandpa would be waiting for us and the year was 1907. Helen Bradley”.
Oil on board. Dimensions: 26.5cm x 34.5cm (10.5in x 13.5in). Gifted by the artist to the vendor’s grandmother.
Estimate: £15,00 – £20,000

Lot 93: Peter Brook (British 1927-2009) “The Months of the Year”
Complete set of twelve, 1978, each signed and numbered 100/150 in pencil in the margins, printed under the direction of Stanley Jones at the Curwen Studio, London, published by Thomas Agnew and Sons Ltd., London (originals in the Tate Collection), presented in original portfolio, lithographs printed in colours. Dimensions: each sheet 57cm x 77.5cm (22.5in x 30.5in)
Estimate: £1,000 – £1,500

Lot 94: Reg Gardner (British 1948-) “Piccadilly Gardens, Manchester”
Signed, oil on canvas. Dimensions: 29.5cm x 24.5cm (11.5in x 9.5in)
Estimate: £300 – £500

Lot 106: Kyffin Williams (British 1918-2006) “Snowdon from Llanllyfni”
Signed and numbered 143/250 in pencil in the margin, limited edition colour print. Dimensions: image size 40cm x 49cm (15.75in x 19.25in)
Estimate: £200 – £400

Lot 111: William Turner F.R.S.A., R.Cam.A. (British 1920-2013) “Which Way?”
Signed, titled on verso, oil on board. Dimensions: 19cm x 24cm (7.5in x 9.5in)
Estimate: £800 – £1.200

Lot 118: Olivia Pilling (British 1985-) “Mills and Canal in Halifax”
Initialled, titled on verso, acrylic on canvas board. Dimensions: 49cm x 39cm (19.25in x 15.25in)
Estimate: £300 – £500

Lot 125: Peter Stanaway (British 1943-) “Huddersfield Canal, Stalybridge”
Signed, titled and dated 2007 on verso, acrylic on canvas. Dimensions: 38cm x 48.5cm (15in x 19.25in)
Estimate: £500 – £700

Designer Desire: Kenneth Steel

Born and based in Sheffield, Yorkshire, Kenneth Steel (1906-1970) was a watercolourist, lithographer and engraver of landscapes and urban scenes. In this post we’re honing in on some of his numerous travel posters – for the likes of British Railways and British European Airways (BEA).

At 12-years-old, Steel won a scholarship to attend the Sheffield Technical School of Art. He went on to become the youngest artist to be elected to the Royal Society of British Artists in 1936.

In December 1940, both Steel’s mother and his pregnant wife were tragically killed in the Sheffield Blitz; the bombing also destroying much of his studio work.

His work can be found in the collections of National Railway Museum, Fife Collections Centre and Newport Museum and Art Gallery. Originals turn up at auction – from Christie’s and Bonhams to eBay – and can fetch into the high hundreds of pounds.

In 2020, a book was published, Kenneth Steel: Catalogue Raisonné of Prints and Railway Posters. The author, Edward Yardley, has co-curated an exhibition of over 100 of his works – Places in Time: The Art of Kenneth Steel – with accompanying talk and tours. It’s currently being held at Harold Cantor Gallery, Weston Park Museum, Sheffield runs until 2nd May 2022.

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Additional image credits:
Art UK | Invaluable

Designer Desire: Douglas Pittuck

Douglas Frederick Pittuck (1911-1993) was an accomplished fine art painter. Born in South East London, he attended Wallington Grammar School. This was followed, between 1931 & 1939, by part-time study at Ruskin School of Drawing, Oxford and then full-time between 1946 and 1948.

Douglas Pittuck soon made his home the market town of Barnard Castle in Teesdale, County Durham. From 1948, he taught art at Barnard Castle School for a quarter of a century, was a founder of Barnard Castle Art Society and was one of the ‘Four Teesside Painters’.

In 1958, Pittuck created a mural on the east wall of the newly-built St Mary’s Parish Hall, in Barnard Castle. It has recently undergone a successful restoration by local restorer, Luke Jordan (it’s shown – pre-restoration – at the top of the montage above).

He seemed to develop a number of different styles during his career; the pair of paintings at the bottom of the montage remind me of the works by the Grosvenor School.

His work is in the collections of The Science Museum, The Bowes Museum, New College, Oxford and Durham County Council.

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Additional image credits:
ArtUK | Invaluable | Run Ing

Designer Desire: Stuart Walton

Stuart Walton (b. 1933) is a self-taught fine art painter, born in Dewsbury and raised in the Middleton area of Leeds. He showed artistic promise from a young age, winning art competitions whilst at school. However, being a ‘working class lad’, he took a job as a sign writer at Lewis’s, a department store in Leeds city centre.

In the 1970s, he gave up his job of Assistant Display Manager to paint full time. In 1975, he was appointed first Yorkshire Television Fine Arts Fellow.

His ‘northern industrial’ subject matter often contains repeated motifs; rows of red brick terraces, smoking chimneys, clothes drying on a washing line and Victorian street lamps.

During the late 1990s and early 2000s, Stuart suffered from deteriorating eye sight forcing him to cease producing artworks. Thankfully, his eyesight has since been treated and Stuart continues to paint to this day.

Stewart Walton is a very talented artist who I used to work with in the Display Studio at Lewis’s on the Headrow in the late 60’s. He was producing at that time acrylics on canvas depicting old streets of Leeds mainly Holbeck, Armley, Beeston and Hunslet. Due to inner city re generation they were demolishing properties in these areas faster that Stewart could paint them so we got together to do some photo shoots. I took colour reversal pictures that Stewart was able to copy and between us we were able to make a considerable record. From a recollection of a person named ‘Kenneth’, Secret Leeds forum, August 2009

The Hepworth Wakefield and the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool hold examples of his work in their permanent collections.

You can purchase original vintage artworks and limited edition prints at auction and on eBay.

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Additional image credits:
Artnet

H is for Home Harbinger

Tag: Northern artist

Auction alert: Northern Art

Designer Desire: Kenneth Steel

Designer Desire: Douglas Pittuck

Designer Desire: Stuart Walton