The Yorkshire Artists (Part I)

Artist Biographies

DAVID COOK

Born in Bingley, West Yorkshire, David originally trained as a designer he began painting and printmaking full time in the early 1980’s. He has taught, as a visiting lecturer, at various colleges including Leicester Polytechnic, Bolton College and Cumbria College of Art and Design. He now works and lives in Malhamdale, North Yorkshire.

David’s work is heavily influenced by the landscape in which he lives. He works in a thematic way producing works of particular locations. Although the starting point may be about a place they are developed to almost abstraction using a variety of media.

Current works include a series of paintings and prints based on landscapes and a collection of cityscape paintings based on visits to Leeds and London.

www.artdc.co.uk

DREW WARD

Drew Ward is an artist living and working at Millbeck Studio in Leeds, West Yorkshire. His works are highly finished charcoal drawings on paper.

www.millbeckstudio.co.uk

TONY NOBLE

Tony Noble is a full time artist working from his studio in Redbrick Mill, Batley, West Yorkshire. His work features a wide range of subject matter, though in recent years he has been gaining something of a reputation as a portrait painter. He featured in the BP Portrait Award Exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery in 2008, 2010 and 2011. He also featured in the Royal Society of Portrait Painters Exhibition at the Mall Galleries, London, in 2010 and 2011.

A talented landscape and still-life artist, he featured in the Sunday Times Watercolour Competition in 2009 and 2010, and last year he won the Maynell Fenton Prize at the ING Discerning Eye Exhibition, again at the Mall Galleries, London.

www.tonynoble-artist.com

MARK SOFILAS

Mark Sofilas was born in Western Australia in 1961.

After obtaining his diploma in graphic design (specialising in illustration), Mark began his professional career in 1981 as a freelance artist. He has worked in the advertising, publishing and editorial industries in Perth, Melbourne and Sydney, Australia. Having worked as an illustrator / artist for over 20 years, Mark relocated to the UK in 2008 where he now paints full time from his studio in Leeds.

Mark’s paintings are inspired by the idiosyncrasies of the northern English and Scottish countryside, bringing to his work the perspective of someone who originates from a very different landscape. Mark works primarily in oils and enjoys exploring textures, colour and the intrinsic geometry of the natural world. His use of colour is bold, direct and challenges the viewer to consider familiar landscape in a very different way.

Mark is an exhibiting member of the Leeds Fine Art Club and his work is shown and sold in galleries throughout the North of England.

www.marksofilasart.com

LESLIE CHILD

Leslie Child is a watercolourist specialising in scenes both of local interest and cities throughout Europe. He lives and works in Leeds, West Yorkshire.

Cityscapes and people are his favourite subjects and he uses pen and wash for maximum impact. His approach is quite detailed and graphic, tending to favour strong architectural elements using figures to give scale and perspective to the overall scene. Wherever possible he works on site, observing and trying to capture the changing effect of light, and much of his work relates to landmarks and listed buildings. If the drawing technique is sound then he strongly believes in the old adage “that a good drawing rarely makes a bad painting”

Leslie is a self-taught artist with no formal qualifications or training and he has won a number of awards both nationally and internationally.

HELEN PEYTON

Helen Peyton is an artist printmaker who specialises in limited edition lino monoprint and lino reduction prints. She works in Skipton, North Yorkshire.

Lino printing is a hand-crafted art and Helen creates her prints on a Victorian printing press that is the complete opposite to high-tech – this one is no-tech!

Past topics for her work have included the sky at night, and ancient Yorkshire landscapes. Her current theme is a series of everyday objects such as record players, radios, and televisions from the 1940s inspired by artefacts she discovered during a 2-year period as artist-in-residence at Craven Museum in Skipton, North Yorkshire.

www.helenpeyton.com