A three-day art exhibition featuring a series of paintings depicting unusual views of Barnard Castle, is taking place over the bank holiday weekend.
Startforth-based artist Dave Palmer spent three years creating the paintings, which show alternative interpretations of some of the town’s most well-known buildings, and will put them on show together for the first time from Saturday.
The exhibition is at the Old Well Inn, in Barnard Castle and runs until Monday, August 26.
Mr Palmer, who had exhibited some of his paintings at Sandra Parker Studio, in Barnard Castle, before its closure last year, said: “It was the idea of landlady Rima Chatterjee. She said why don’t we put all the Teesdale paintings on show?
“I’m hoping to have nine or ten paintings on show and they are all Teesdale scenes. I am hoping to display them in a chronological way from the earliest to the latest to show a progression of styles.”
The first painting in the series, created in 2019, depicts an intricate view of Horsemarket at the turn of the 20th century complete with traditional modes of transport.
For his next painting Mr Palmer recreated the scene as if it were 30 years later, transposing horse and carriages for early motor vehicles.
Among the paintings that will be on display is an ethereal rendering of a former industrial building titled Ghost of Ullathorne Mill, Mr Palmer’s first venture into surrealism.
Mr Palmer added: “The first painting I did in the series was very traditional and I have moved on.
“I thought what if a building had a memory and it could remember its neighbours and I thought Ullathorne Mill would have been a good neighbour to the castle.
“I thought if the castle was dredging the memory of the mill back up the River Tees like a steamboat.”
The exhibition will be in the conservatory of the pub on The Bank in the town. Prints of the paintings will be available for sale during the exhibition and for each framed print sold during the three-day event Mr Palmer will donate 15 per cent to his favourite charity, the TCR Hub in Barnard Castle.
He said: “Since the Sandra Parker Studio closed, I have not found anywhere else to show my paintings, although The Witham did kindly allow me to some show this year.
“I’m pretty much set up for the show but I could do with a loan of a couple more easels.”
Anyone who can loan an easel should contact Mr Palmer on 07545 585185.
