Art lovers will get the chance to buy artwork by the late J Alec Pearson

Alec Pearson was Northern Life’s first resident artist. Here we revisit some of the sketches that were featured in the magazine from years gone by.

Art lovers will get the chance to buy some of the wonderful works of the late J Alec Pearson in an exhibition and sale at Bradley Village Hall, near Skipton, in September.

Unframed landscapes in watercolour, charcoal, pastel, pen and ink drawings and sketches – many not previously exhibited – can be viewed and bought on Sunday 18th September from 10am to 4pm, following a private preview by invitation the previous day.

Born in 1933 and growing up in Sheffield, Alec Pearson loved two things – football and art.

With parents who didn’t share his artistic ambitions, however, Alec kept his art to his bedroom, poring over a few art books given by a sympathetic aunt.

With these few books to fire his imagination, Alec believed that the only form of art was landscape and in order to improve his skills Alec would slavishly copy Constable and Turner.

Following in the footsteps of many young men at that time, Alec worked shifts in the local steelworks, where to the curiosity of some, he continued drawing and also became interested in industrial archaeology.

After his stint of national service, Alec started to exhibit his work and was invited to lecture on art at some after-school classes. This led him to undertake a three-year teacher training course, which then gave him the luxury of a studio to use and scope to really broaden his artistic horizons in terms of new work and exhibitions.

He taught art at Stocksbridge High School in She;eld and later became an in-service tutor in North Yorkshire. He had solo exhibitions at galleries throughout Yorkshire and Lancashire, at Oxford and Durham Universities, and even in Bavaria and the USA.

Alec died in 2009, and as a tribute to his life and work some of his pictures are on permanent display in our gallery here at the Northern Life Centre, Sun Street, Colne.