Renowned North East painter Norman Cornish passed away six years ago but his work is proving more popular than ever.
Two separate exhibitions inspired by the artist who was born in Spennymoor, County Durham, have been extended due to the level of public interest in them.
The first at Bowes Museum in Barnard Castle called ‘Norman Cornish: The Definitive Collection’ was due to end on February 23 and will now run until May 17.
And the second at Palace Green Library, Durham University, called ‘Norman Cornish: The Sketchbooks’, will now end on March 1 instead of February 23.
Both are part of a series of events to mark the centenary of Cornish’s birth.
The Bowes Museum exhibition features more than 70 works from across his career, including items from public and private collections, some of which have never been shown publicly before.
Curator, Dr Howard Coutts, said it had helped bring in the “best visitor numbers” there for a decade.
“The response we have had to this centenary celebratory exhibition has been outstanding,” he said.
“It’s drawn people into the museum from all over the country, many who are revisiting their own childhoods or that of their family, to those who are keen to see what life was like in the North East as Cornish captured it.”
Meanwhile at Palace Green, Liz Waller, director of library and collections at Durham University, said when the exhibition opened: “These treasures, focusing on his observations of life, landscapes and family, offer an intimate insight into his personal thoughts and reflections.
“Some of the sketchbooks and loose drawings also link directly to paintings featured in the exhibition, showing the progression from an initial observation through a series of steps to a finished work.
“Norman is an icon of North East life and art. We feel honoured to be part of celebrating the centenary of his birth and privileged to be hosting this very special exhibition.”
Cornish’s son, John, said: “My father’s sketchbooks offer an extraordinary insight into his world. For him, drawing was a compulsion; in his words sketching was ‘an itch that he had to scratch’.
“His sketchbooks contain a wealth of interesting images, including spontaneous character studies, bar scenes and so much more.”
Cornish was born in November 1919 and worked as a coal miner for 33 years before becoming a full-time artist in 1966. His artworks documenting life in the county’s pit villages are both critically acclaimed and hugely popular.
Cornish was one of the region’s most influential and sought-after artists of recent times whose work is held in public and private collections across the UK and abroad.
Essentially self-taught, he was always primarily an artist - drawing and painting came naturally to him. He described his compulsive artistic drive as ‘an itch that he had to scratch’.
Broadcaster and author Melvyn Bragg, whose first TV documentary for BBC Monitor in 1963, ‘Two Border Artists’ (the other was Sheila Fell), focused on the work of Norman, said in his Foreword to Behind The Scenes: The Norman Cornish Sketchbooks, “he stands as a magnificent Chronicler of one of the most important passages in English history.
“The paintings and drawing he brings to us of the hard-lived lives of a community which defied the odds will be enduring. He has not only preserved a life lived by millions of people in this country and others around the world, he has given it significance and permanence that only a real artist can achieve.”
