Feaver and Kilbourn

I couldn't get to the Club on Thursday because of an appointment with my accountant, which meant I wasn't able to carry on with the small oil, Buildings with Tyne Bridge. I'll have to wait until next week, or call in and bring it home to finish off.

However, I did manage to catch up with an exhibition in town. The University Gallery are showing downstairs a small collection of paintings by the art critic, William Feaver. Mostly landscapes made in and around Spartylea near Allendale, they show a wonderfully fresh and spontaneous approach to the subject.

Although I appreciated its historical and nostalgic content, I was less interested in the show upstairs. Oliver Kilbourn: A Retrospective is an exhibition of paintings by one of the Pitmen Painters (and this is the connection with Bill Feaver). There were a lot things in the pictures which brought back childhood memories - playing on the mat in front of the range, washing hanging up in the back lane, that sort of thing - but ... how can I put this? The paintings aren't that well done, and what I wanted most of all that day was an input of well-crafted painting. William Feaver provided that.