One of the last places you might expect to see an art exhibition is in a railway museum. But Durham County Council have been using Locomotion, the National Railway Museum at Shildon, to display the entries in a local art competition.
The pictures were framed between towering steam engines and crumbling carriages. We expected to see lots of pictures of trains. In fact, there were only a couple but with paintings and sculptures from over 100 artists, we had plenty to look at.
The first prize of £1000 had already been awarded to Dr M Quinn with a charming painting of "Sessy", an older lady sitting in a chair, sewing. It had lots of fine detail and the artist had caught the light from an adjacent window very well.
The fun thing about an art competition is that you can pick your own, unofficial, winner. We agreed with the judges that the painting of "Sessy" was excellent but set about looking for the ones we preferred. We particularly liked the pictures of local places; countryside as well as town views. Also the intimate portraits of people who were probably friends or neighbours of the artists. "Solitude" by A Jackson evoked a mystical feeling in both of us and we marvelled at the detail in two miniature paintings by R Earnshaw.
And so to our winners. Vince chose the wooden carving "Resting Miner" by A Brookes. The detail was fantastic and the organic shape very realistic. You could almost hear the miner snoring away in a corner.
Vicky plumped for the portrait of "Seamus The Cat" by Lydia le Brun. "He's got such a cute expression!" Vicky exclaimed. She also liked the kaleidescope of bright colours chosen by the artist.
Running an art competition is a great way to show the work of local artists. Displaying their works in the middle of a popular railway museum also connects with people who may not have visited conventional galleries.
Vicky and Vince,
Love Your Art
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