ARTISTIC folk in former mining communities have been taking part in workshops inspired by one of the region’s best-loved pitman painters.

People at County Durham community centres have been learning new techniques to help create pieces like the legendary Norman Cornish.

He worked as a miner for over 30 years and his work is a social documentary of a bygone era often featuring mining communities, the streets he lived in and the pubs he drank in.

During the sessions professional artist Vicky Holbrough shows people how to create a portrait and make their own sketchbook using paper-folding techniques and fine-liners and marker pens.

On Saturday, she was at the Randolph Community Centre in Evenwood, near Bishop Auckland, with a group of 24 people.

She said: “It has been great and everyone has been enthusiastic in the activities.

“Some people have brought images of their own to draw from such as families and friends and others have done self-portraits.

“We have looked at composition and doing an under drawing before we start working with coloured pastels and charcoals. We have tried to connect with the materials that Norman Cornish would have used.”

Sara Cox, from Teesdale, who took part in Saturday’s event with a friend, said:

“It’s been lovely. It’s been a great opportunity to just sit and concentrate and think about your shadowing and lining, using pastels and charcoal.

“I usually use mixed media like textiles so it nice to spend two hours drawing and concentrating on portraits.

“Everyone has been involved and completely absorbed by it.”

“Norman Cornish’s style is amazing and he is such a brilliant North-East artist.

“He really conjures up the atmosphere of the people in the town and in the pubs. He is really good at observing people.”

Norman Cornish: The Definitive Collection is currently on display at exhibition at The Bowes Museum, which has teamed up with Northern Heartlands, to deliver the outreach sessions in Teesdale villages to reinforce the importance of the artist’s legacy and to bring his work to new audiences.

This Saturday they will be at Cockfield Community Café and on February 8 at Woodland Village Hall.

Julia Dunn, The Bowes Museum’s education and learning coordinator, said:

“We have had really good attendance and it has been a mixed audience.

“There have some young people and older ones so it has been a really good intergenerational event.

“We are oversubscribed so it has gone above and beyond our expectations.”

The exhibition is open until February 23 and visitors can see more than 70 works gathered from across his working life, ranging from charcoal sketches to pastels and oil paintings.

To find out if there is a space for the free workshops email: education@thebowesmuseum.org.uk