News

News, March 2024.

From Saturday, 2nd March,

I will be showing these three paintings as part of the Urban Life Exhibition at Shat Gallery, 24 Commercial Road, Skelmanthorpe, Huddersfield, HD8 9DA. It’s an open exhibition featuring the work of around 30 artists. The paintings I am showing are:-

Temple

Lady Anne from 46 Primrose Hill

Co-operative Society

“Lady Anne from 46 Primrose Hill” is one of the oldest surviving painting of mine, painted in watercolour from my bedroom at 46 Primrose Hill around 1983.

Skelmanthorpe is known as "Shat", which is an abbreviation of “Shatterers”, the name by which the locals are known. Local labour was taken on during construction of the railway to break or 'shatter' rocks as well as work on the excavations. These unskilled labourers were referred to as “Shatterers”. It’s good to know the memory of these hard workers lives on.

Famously, actress Jodie Whittaker, probably best known as the thirteenth incarnation of the Doctor in Doctor Who, was born and raised in Shat.

Tony Noble 1/3/24.

News, 25th January 2024

Paper shop dog

My painting, “Paper shop dog”, is currently featuring in the Winter Exhibition by Yorkshire Artists at the Saltaire Art Gallery, 13a Victoria Rd, Saltaire, Shipley BD18 3LQ. The gallery is open Thursday – Sunday. For opening times and further details please visit https://www.saltaire.art/ . It’s a small gallery, so work will be moved around from time to time, so if you can’t see my work, please ask Nina the gallery owner and she will guide you to it. All works in the exhibition are for sale and exhibition runs until 28th April.

If you go to Saltaire you must also visit Salt’s Mill which is an amazing building of enormous historical significance in which you can see a variety of works by art’s golden boy of Bradford, David Hockney. There is also a terrific book shop, two great cafes and a whole range of different stores. There is free parking at Salt’s Mill and Saltaire is easily accessed by train or bus.

Tony Noble 25.1.24

News, 31st December 2023.

Well, that’s another year almost gone! Last week was the first anniversary of the move into my new studio at Redbrick. The move nearly killed me, but I survived and am very happy working there. Below are photographs of further paintings completed for the most part during the past 12 months. As you can see, the bird series has continued to expand in parallel with further urban landscape paintings. I have held back some of the work as I like to keep some paintings under wraps prior to entering them for open exhibitions in the near future. Thank you for your interest and support over the years. I hope you all have a happy, healthy and peaceful New Year through 2024.

Grey Heron

Black headed Gull

Beware , thief

Cragside starling

Round Robin #2

Round Robin #3

Round Robin #4

Skylark

Gosling #1 SOLD

Gosling #2

Dunnock #2 SOLD

Long tailed tit

Young Blackbird

Grey heron in reeds

If you build it they will come, Grey wagtail in the pond. #1

If you build it they will come, Grey wagtail in the pond. #2

The New Light Exhibition.

The New Light Exhibition has now completed its run at the Williamson Art Gallery, Birkenhead. It’s a great show full of excellent work. If you haven’t yet had a chance to see it, fear not! The tour goes on to:-

Bankside Gallery, Southbank, London: 27th February – 3rd March 2024.

Rheged Arts Centre, Penrith: 14th March – 2nd June 2024.

The Biscuit Factory, Newcastle: 22nd June – mid-September 2024.

The Mercer Art Gallery, Harrogate: 12th October – 21st December 2024.

It’s well worth a visit, so go if you can.

For more information visit https://newlight-art.org.uk/prize-exhibition

The Calder Open 2023.

The Calder Open is still showing at the Smith Art Gallery, Brighouse, W. Yorkshire, running until 9th April, 2024.

For further details please visit For more information visit - https://museums.calderdale.gov.uk/whats-on/exhibitions/calderdale-open-art-exhibition-2023

The Trinity Buoy Wharf Drawing Prize Exhibition.

The Trinity Buoy Wharf Drawing Prize Exhibition is now on tour. Tour venues include:

- The Gallery at Arts University Bournemouth, 2 February to 16 April 2024;

- The Arts Institute, Plymouth University, 4 May to 29 June 2024;

- Turnpike, Wigan, 13 July to 14 September 2024.

Tony Noble, December 2023.

News, 1.10.23.

Calder Open, 2023.

I’m really delighted to have had three paintings selected for the Calder Open Exhibition at one of my favourite local galleries, The Smith Art Gallery, Brighouse. The theme of the exhibition is, ‘Calder’. The three paintings selected are “The Monarch of the M62”, “The Mill Gates” and “Calder”.

The Monarch of the M62

“The Monarch of the M62” is the view under the M62 bridge close to Brighouse. I have run under this bridge many times, and every time I did I thought what a great subject for a painting it would make. When I went to make a plein air study I chatted with a guy who lives very close by in the lock-keeper’s cottage. He told me how one day he saw two deer crossing the river close to the weir, around 100m from the bridge. I thought, what a great sight that must have been.

Calder

This painting features an industrial building on the banks of the river Calder in Ravensthorpe, again, a view seen many times in the past whilst running along the footpath by the river. I love the trees in early spring when some are just starting to get new leaves, and the sureness of the two Canada geese in the full-flowing river which I have to admit to finding rather threatening, and undoubtedly dangerous, to us mere mortals.

For more information visit - https://museums.calderdale.gov.uk/whats-on/exhibitions/calderdale-open-art-exhibition-2023

News, 30.9.23.

Yesterday we went to our second exhibition preview in two days! This time we went to The Williamson Museum and Art Gallery in Birkenhead, Merseyside, for the opening of this year’s New Light Prize Exhibition.

Established in 2010, New Light celebrates and promotes the best of Northern art, supporting both well-known and emerging artists by offering some of the region’s best awards and opportunities with the biennial New Light Prize Exhibition. The exhibition serves to confirm a deep belief that the visual arts matter and the North of England deserves to be celebrated.

This is the fourth time I have shown in this exhibition, and I’m both delighted and proud to have been selected again. This year I had two paintings selected:-

A quiet morning on Commercial Street.

Into the valley.

Both of the selected paintings are based in my hometown, Batley.

The first, “A quiet morning on Commercial Street” features the row of shops in Upper Commercial Street which I am almost old enough to have witnessed being built! Many of the shops have changed hands over the years, and I have many unreliable memories linked to them.

“Skin & Tonic” on the far right was throughout my childhood a bike shop where brake blocks and puncture repair kits were common purchases.

The left-hand side of the Post Office was a great café run by an Italian guy who had perhaps the first expresso coffee machine I ever saw. The coffee tasted extraordinary, especially when served in glass cups. We would go there in our lunch break from school. We (thought we) were cool!

Next to the café was a sports shop/chiropodists run by Norman Hodge.

In my mind, Charnock’s Bakery and Whitehead’s Barber Shop have been there forever. I still go to Whitehead’s for my haircut. In my case, the name is entirely appropriate!