Presented by the North Of England Art Club
PREVIEW: SAT 28th JUN
2-4pn, NAC Gallery & Cafe
EXHIBITION: SAT 28th JUN – SAT 26th JUL
Mon-Sat, 9:30am-5pm
This exhibition celebrates the work of the late Tom Lawson. He was one of the oldest and most distinguished members of the North of England Art Club.
Tom Lawson was a fine life painter and draughtsman. This reflective exhibition displayed nearly 100 of his works, and celebrated the quiet, evocative and dedicated skill of Tom as an artist.
More about Tom…
Tom trained at classes at Kings College (Newcastle University). He studied in the Euston Road manner under greats like Victor Pasmore and Lawrence Gowing. He was proud to have been taught at the Slade School of Fine Art. William Coldstream, the acknowledged leader of the Euston Road group, was his instructor.
The Newcastle Society of Artists split in the 1970s. A number of artists took premises in Bolbec Hall in 1974. They called themselves the North of England Art Club. Tom became a member shortly after.
He was a fine life painter and draughtsman. He was proud to have been awarded the John Christie prize for life drawing while at Kings. His name was included in the prestigious book by Marshall Hall, Artists of Northumbria, after that.
Art Club members remember watching him do a big oil painting at Bolbec Hall of trees with light flooding through. A beautiful painting of blues and golds. Evocative of walking in Jesmond Dene, passing a particular group of trees which we believe to have been his inspiration. He was really a plein air painter, and said once he had never been inspired by a photograph. When he had to give up his car and couldn’t drive any more he would put a few objects together. Setting up his own still life or work from his old watercolours.
Tom was a modest man but had a sure sense of his own worth. He sold many of his paintings mainly at club and Friends of the Hatton Gallery exhibitions. But, he didn’t work hard to sell. He was shy but would open up to people who showed interest in him and his work.
Links: North of England art club
