A FAMOUS artist is displaying his work alongside that of his boyhood friend.

Len Tabner is extending his exhibition at Kirkleatham Museum, in Redcar, so it can run alongside that of the now-deceased David Mulholland.

The two artists met as 11-year-olds in South Bank, Middlesbrough, at Victoria Street Secondary Modern school and were both inspired by their legendary art teacher, Tom Dalton.

As child-artists they were often allowed passes out from school for the day to draw and paint, such was their early talent.

David Mulholland went on to study at the Royal College of Art, in London, and stage two major exhibitions in the capital. However, when he moved back home, it was Mr Tabner who became internationally renowned.

The pair remained friends and Mr Mulholland asked his old drawing partner to organise his funeral when he knew he was dying of throat cancer in 2005, aged just 58.

Pete and Pat McCarthy, who were friends of Mr Mulholland, have organised the latest exhibition of his work after a recent successful exhibition at the Dorman Museum, in Middlesbrough.

Pat McCarthy said: “David Mulholland’s work is essentially about his home and one might say it is coming home. The happenstance of the exhibition running in conjunction with one featuring paintings produced by Len Tabner makes it a particularly significant homecoming.”

The McCarthy’s have spent years tracking down paintings by David Mulholland and some are on display for the first time. One of them, depicting two men outside the steelworks and titled A Flyer off the 2-10 for a Darts Match, belonged to a former patron of Mr Mulholland, the grandfather of current Liberal Democrat minister Danny Alexander. Redcar’s Liberal Democrat MP, Ian Swales, contacted the Alexander family to find the painting.

The exhibitions will run for six months.