Previous Exhibition: Bingley Gallery Summer Show 3 July to 7 September 2025

It’s our annual Summer Show and as usual we do like to take the chance on a number of new artists, as well as new work from our regular and irregular exhibitors.

Andrew Storrie
A new face to our galler yAndrew grew up in Eldwick and Cullingworth attending Bingley Granmar school and Bradford college to study art before moving to East Yorkshire. His paintings reflect northern life, often nostalgic with a twist of humour and a subtle nod to the bantams

Matthew Duckett
Born in Leeds in 1966 Mathew lived in Ilkley on and off from 1976 to 2000. He studied at Bradford College and then at Central St Martins in London and taught at Leeds College of Art for twenty-five years. He currently lives in Baildon.
The majority of his work are abstracted recollection of intimately known local landscapes, but these images differ. They are rooted more firmly in a tangible reality but are more distant in that they are based on photographs of distant places, long ago. Any clues to their context have been removed. I make no claim to ‘ownership’ and apologise to anyone who might recognise a connection to a time, a place, or an event, though as some might guess, movies are sometimes referred to.

Richard Smith – textile design-related artefacts

After his family’s three generations in Bradford’s textile design and weaving business, Richard turned to archiving the surviving artefacts of the design process.  In a further step he has prepared a range of these artefacts into framed wall art. Whether original artwork, or the ‘point papers’ which transformed the design into a pixelated matrix before the punching of the cards used by Jacquard looms, the marks and annotations of past generations of textile workers emphasise their input. The designs are also redolent of their period, from the bold, strikingly coloured fabrics of the 1970s, to more classical weaves of earlier years.

Ian Tothill – Mixed Media and collage

Ian spent much of his working life helping children develop their creativity and self expression. During lockdown in 2020 he started his own art practice, making collages for a zine being compiled by his daughter. He found a thriving friendly online community of collage artists who share ideas, challenges, materials and encouragement. His work has now been accepted for exhibitions around the world, held solo shows locally and published..  The South Square Collage Club, which he founded in 2021, meets monthly, is open to all , from complete beginners to art college lecturers.

There’s quite a story behind most of his work ‘Tumbling Hill’ is a collage made in response to the theme of his audio visual performance project ‘Beck’ by Ian’s audio visual duo Latterhand. He describes the inspiration “There’s a car wash on Thornton Road near the city centre where Bradford Beck briefly appears above ground. The owner was interested in the music within the film project and told us about his ambitions to study playing the oud as a boy. He didn’t get the grades for college so trained to be an accountant instead, now his days are spent running a hand car wash. The collage picks up the colours and shapes of the site and includes a bit of the fence which had fallen off.

‘Believe’ is the word found on a piece of discarded paper. Bradford, a city of dreams, built on the wool trade, now celebrating a year of culture and moving onwards into a positive future. ‘Strata 6’ was made as part of a project about West Yorkshire stone, it includes fragments from all kinds of sources; rubbings from stone steps, old maps, discarded scratch cards, ancient paper, advertising hoardings and much more  built up in layers over time.

Jane Hurford – Ceramics

Jane is Fascinated by clay and its endless possibilities she makes a wide variety of forms usually inspired by natural forms, Yorkshire and the idiosyncrasies of the clay itself. “Just because something is made of clay it does not have to be round and useful.”.She usually produces her pieces at Hive in Shipley where she also teaches.

Bev Morten – Mixed Media

I was wowed by Bev’s mixed media work at the recent Saltaire Art Trail (a source for many of our exhibitors). A graduate of the Bradford School of Art, she works from her studio in South Square, Thornton. Her work focuses on the forms and colours found in the natural world.

Victoria Chichinadze Bronze Sculptor

Victoria is the creator of exquisitely beautiful bronze sculptures, using the lost wax casting technique and finishing using hot and cold patination techniques. A native of Ukraine, she is currently based in Ilkley. We are so fortunate that an artist with an international reputation and a back catalogue of exhibitions across Europe has chosen to be based in our region, not least because traditional copper alloy casting techniques, particularly at this level of quality, are so rare amongst UK-trained artists. Added to her showing this exhibition are two new bird-themed works.

Heather Swain – Linocuts

Heather , who works from her home studio in Baildon is passionate about printmaking, with lino-cutting as her most common technique. Subject matter varies from careful studies from nature through to more abstracted works. Although the prints are produced as small ‘limited editions, her tendency to experiment and vary colours and techniques during printing often results in subtle differences within editions. We’re thrilled that she came up with a new view, of Five rise Locks, for this show.

Stella Verity – Watercolour & Collage

As well as a watercolour artist Stella is a keen gardener and cook and this is reflected in her subjects usually of flowers fruit or vegetables. “I love the vibrant colours and the amazing patterns of the natural world and try to replicate the beauty and variety in my work”. A new development is her neurographic art work. This artistic approach uses free-flowing organic lines and is considered as being therapeutic and meditative.

Rob Thomson – watercolour

‘Tom’ came to painting later in life after a career in architecture, painting in both oils and the watercolour in this show. As you might expect the laws of perspective come as second nature. In this year’s show a couple of works are based on historic photos and others, in a new move, incorporate linen gauze to create texture in an otherwise flat medium.

Alan John Green (1921 – 2020) Watercolour and pastel

We don’t normally include non-contemporary artists in our summer show but have made an exception for this Alan (A contemporary  of Hockney and Bradford School of Art, I’m told), whose work remains fresh and depicts our local landscape, particularly the Leeds Liverpool Canal with love and skill.

Jane Fielder

Needing no introduction, Jane Fielder WAS the Bingley Gallery long before David came on the scene

Leyla Murr – Acrylic abstracted landscapes

Leyla is a predominantly abstract artist, working both from her Eldwick home and The Dockfield Road Creative Arts Hub in Shipley. Originally from Zagreb, Croatia, her artistic training allowed her to turn professional 20 years ago. Not surprisingly her work has an international appeal and can be found in collections across the world.

Rachel Hinds (formerly working as Clarke Avery) oil painter

Rachel Hinds is a fine artist who, as an archaeology graduate, is inspired by the past, particularly by 19th century romantic paintings. She reimagines the past with a dash of colour, conjuring up atmospheric and dramatic scenes that interact directly with the on-looker’s emotions. Expect Viking longships venturing into rocky inlets, coastal scenes with nineteenth century frigates peacefully moored and shepherds bringing their flocks down from the moors at the approach of winter. The painting style is described by the Leeds –born artist as ‘experimental with expressive brushstrokes, strong colours and textures’. There is a high degree of abstraction within the landscapes which often contrasts with the detail of the focal subject matter.

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Judith Levin – oils

Judith is an internationally collected still life and landscape artist based in Otley. Best known for her depictions of the heather-clad moorland of our region: In our opinion no other painter brings out its brooding beauty quite as effectively as Judith. Although, her subject matter can be far more varied, she seems drawn to return to the big open spaces. She has her own solo exhibition in the gallery in October, but we couldn’t resist one piece for this show.

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