THE work of a County Durham 'pitman-poet' is being celebrated in the month of his 85th birthday.

Norman Cornish's distinctive scenes of life in a County Durham mining community are featured in an exhibition which runs until November 28, at Sunderland's Museum and Winter Gardens.

The Art of Norman Cornish, a partnership project between Tyne and Wear Museums and the University Gallery of Northumbria University, features portraits of local figures, pub scenes and miners on the pit road. Forming a visual record of a colliery community over seven decades, the collection is described as, 'a comprehensive retrospective' of the life and work of Norman Cornish.

Born in Spennymoor, in 1919, he began work as a miner at the age of 14, when he became an apprentice at the Dean and Chapter Colliery.

He worked in several other collieries in the Durham Coalfield over 33 years, spending his days in the mine and his weekends painting. On his retirement from the pit he was able to devote more time to his passion for painting.

Although the collieries are transformed, he hopes to offer a glimpse of life of a bygone era through his paintings.

"The local collieries have gone, together with the old pit road. Many of the old streets, chapels and pubs are no more. Many of the ordinary, but fascinating people who frequent these places are gone. However, in my memory and I hope in my drawings, they live on." A tour of the exhibition this week by Amy Baker, of Tyne and Wear Museums, will be followed by other events.

Art historian Alastair Gilmour will give a talk based on Cornish's work on Tuesday, November 16, from 2pm until 2.45pm.

Authors Rob McManners and Gillian Wales will offer their thoughts, in 'Shafts of Light - Mining Art in the Great Northern Coalfield', on November 23.

Call the museum on (0191) 553 2323 for more details of events.