"CRESSWELL"

Cresswell is a small seaside village in Northumberland. John and his family would stop here often for ice creams on their way to spend the day at nearby Druridge Bay, a stunning part of the North Sea coast which John painted frequently over his lifetime. The ice cream shop is still there and sells delicious homemade ice creams - well worth a visit! This painting is another of the ones that are “missing” to us. It was painted in 1973 and may still be in the area somewhere as our research points to the painting having been sold at the Bondgate Gallery in Alnwick the following year.

STILL MISSING.....

We know from all sorts of sources – word of mouth, newspaper articles, bills of sale, exhibition catalogues, photographs and letters, for example – that in addition to the paintings we know about, there are many more still to find. The number of paintings ‘missing’ to us as a family changes all the time. It goes down when someone gets in touch to let us know what they own and and it goes up as we find titles or images of even more works we hadn’t known about. At the last count the number of missing paintings stood at 429. `The painting shown below is one of them and we have only this image captured in an old slide. If you own one of John’s works that you think we might be unaware of, or if know someone who does, then we would love to hear from you. Please email: info@johnpeacepaintings.co.uk 

TWO PAINTINGS FOR SALE.....

On Tuesday 27th January two beautiful oil paintings by John are being sold, on behalf of a collector, by Anderson & Garland in Newcastle at their Modern Art & Design Auction.

LOT 152 (untitled) is of a horse and cart and we know from similar paintings that it depicts a scene at Lynemouth in Northumberland where sea coal has been collected from the shoreline at low tide from as early as the 7th century. It was hauled into carts pulled by ponies who could get right up to the waters-edge. The coal gathered at Lynemouth was largely sold to the local power station. It is signed, dated 1972 and measures 12”x8.5”

LOT 127 “Near Bywell, Northumberland” is a stunning autumnal painting showing the expansive bend in the River Tyne at a point between Newcastle and Hexham. The river here is renowned for trout and salmon fishing. It is signed, dated 1979 and measures 12”x18”

HAPPY CHRISTMAS!

This signal box stood at Lemington beside the railway line from Newcastle to North Wylam. It was close to Lloyd Street, one of the Pit Rows, which stood in the shadow of the Percy Pit heap. The line closed to passenger traffic in 1968. The signal box is long gone and the route is now a footpath and cycleway but this painting is an atmospheric reminder of winter times gone by.

WHITLEY BAY

The new owner of a painting bought at auction in the summer has been in touch to let us have details. It is a lovely little oil painting that we knew existed but had no idea until recently where it was. John would often inscribe in pencil into the wet oil paint the name of the place he had painted. Sometimes, as in this case, he would also write the actual title of the painting on the back in pencil. He had called this painting “On the Beach” and had written a ‘4’ next to the words. From our records we are pretty sure it was painted in 1963 and from a 1966 Mowbray Gallery catalogue where it appears as the 4th work on a list of paintings, that it was sold for the grand sum of £15.

THE ROTHBURY ESTATE

The Northumberland moors were like a magnet to John. As a boy he would spend days there, wild camping with his brothers and friends, walking in the hills or climbing the rocky crags. Later, when he had his own family, he would regularly take RoseMary and their children to visit the area. He loved the unspoilt beauty of this wild, open landscape and painted it throughout his life. The Rothbury Estate is up for sale and though part of it - the Simonside Hills depicted in the 1972 painting below (“Towards the Simonsides”) has already been secured for future generations by The Wildlife Trust and Northumberland Wildlife Trust - there is an appeal to raise £30million over the next twelve months to enable them to buy the remaining land. Follow the link to find out more : https://www.wildlifetrusts.org/appeals/rothbury-estate-nature-and-nation

.....AN EXCITING DISCOVERY!

A painting by John described in the catalogue as “Moored ship and tug off a dockside” (oil on board, signed and measuring 38cm x 54cm) has come to light after having been sold at auction in Surrey. It is one of a series of oils painted in the late 1960s / early 1970s showing shipping on the River Wear and was unknown to us until now. The details of the painting have been added to our growing list of re-discovered works in readiness for inclusion in John’s Catalogue Raisonne.

FUELLING THE RAILWAY REVOLUTION

…is the title of the latest exhibition at the Mining Art Gallery in Bishop Auckland and explores the link between coal mining and the railways. John’s oil painting “Colliery Engines in the Snow”, on loan from Durham County Council, is on show as part of it. The exhibition runs until December. The wider art collection includes works by Norman Cornish, Tom McGuiness, Ted Holloway and Bob Olley. It’s well worth a visit to the whole Auckland Project. https://aucklandproject.org/

ROSEMARY PEACE

John’s darling wife RoseMary died in June at the grand age of ninety. They met initially just after John had finished at the Slade and while RoseMary was training to be a nurse at Newcastle General Hospital. It was, as he said almost every day afterwards, “love at first sight !”  She was his muse and he painted and drew her often – wonderful depictions of domestic bliss. His last work was a pencil sketch of her, drawn just a few days before he died.

“Study for a Portrait of the Artist’s Wife”. Unsigned, undated, oil on board 18½“x25” and discovered in his studio after John’s death in 2017.

AUCTION on 3rd APRIL ‘25

Two of John’s North East watercolours are for sale at Anderson & Garland’s Fine Art Auction on Thursday 3rd April. You can bid in person or online and see details at https://www.andersonandgarland.com/auction/details/fa030425-fine-art-auction/?au=818

Both were painted in the 1980s and measure approx 43x53cms in their frames. Lot 975 “From the Causeway, Holy Island, Northumberland, Bamburgh Castle on left” and Lot 976 “Tyne Valley from Hedley on the Hill” are being sold by a third party and before they appeared in the auction catalogue they were unknown to us so it’s exciting to have “found” them. They are both signed and dated.

THE MONTAGU PIT DISASTER

On 30th March 1925, 107 men and 41 boys were working the Brockwell Seam at the Montagu Pit in Scotswood just outside Lemington. At 9.25 in the morning an explosive charge set in a projection of coal was fired to allow it to be loaded into tubs and brought to the surface. 15 minutes later a thin trickle of smelly water appeared. Unknown to the men the workings were adjacent to the long abandoned Paradise Pit. The pressure of water escaping from it soon shattered the thin wall of coal separating the 2 mines and water flooded in, trapping 38 miners underground. Some were drowned. Others were gassed. It took seven weeks to remove the first body from the mine and five months to bring all of them to the surface.

John’s oil painting, held in a private collection, “Montagu Pit Yard After Demolition” was painted in 1961. It was a place that obviously resonated with him as we know from records of the existence of five other paintings of the same subject. Those five are all on our list of  over 450 “missing” paintings. Please email if you can help us to track one down!

LOT 16 - January 14, 2025

A framed oil on board painting by John called “Dunes on the Coast” which is signed and dated 26 April 1962 is being sold by a third party through Thomas Miller Auctioneers in Newcastle online and in house from 10am. https://bidonline.millersauctioneers.co.uk/auctions

It measures 28cms x 35cms and has a label on the back showing that it was sold originally through The Stone Gallery in Newcastle Upon Tyne.

John exhibited at the Stone in the 1960s alongside L.S. Lowry, Norman Cornish, John Piper, Sheila Fell and other artists of note.

Christmas cards and gifts

Christmas cards, the “Tyne & Tide” book and giclee prints of John’s work are on sale now at the Mining Art Gallery in Bishop Auckland and at the Come View My Art Gallery in Gateshead. You can also buy direct through our website and if there’s anything you’d like that either isn’t in stock or that isn’t showing as “for sale” on our website, please get in touch as we’re more than happy to do bespoke orders. Prices are the same as for regular stock. We can also post or email gift cards if you’re unsure what to buy for someone else. As always, any profits go towards helping us to protect and promote John’s work and we are very grateful for your support. Email info@johnpeacepaintings.co.uk

Watercolour for sale.....

…this Thursday 26 September at Anderson & Garland’s “Modern Art & Design” auction in Newcastle and online. It is untitled, undated and signed on the back of the frame and is of St Cuthbert’s Isle, Holy Island. We know of an oil painting John did of the same view. For many years while a lecturer at Sunderland University, John would take his students on residential trips to Holy Island so it is an oft-visited subject. When the tide comes in, St Cuthbert’s Isle becomes separated from Holy Island and so becomes a tidal island off a tidal island. It is accessible only by foot at low tide. Visit www.andersonandgarland.com for details of Lot 934

The Mining Art Gallery

There are only a few weeks left to visit “The Last Cage Down” in Bishop Auckland, an exhibition which marks the 40th anniversary of the Miners’ Strike. John’s watercolour “Reclamation Percy Pit” is on show alongside many wonderful and interesting works by mining artists such as Norman Cornish, Bob Olley and Tom McGuinness and which portray the declining years of the coal mining industry and way of life before it was lost forever. The exhibition closes on 6 October.

Tynemouth

John painted both King Edward’s Bay and Longsands in Tynemouth many times over the years, both in oil and watercolour. It’s a glorious place whatever the weather! This little watercolour, which is signed but untitled, was painted in the summer of 1995.

The Blaydon Races....

This photo shows John in his studio in Lemington in the 1960s. On the easel is a painting called “The Ninth of June, 1962” and this photo is the only visual record we have of it. It is one of around 450 of John’s “missing” paintings and is of historical importance. It shows crowds on Scotswood Bridge celebrating the 100th anniversary of the Blaydon Races. The original Blaydon Races were horse races, commemorated in “The Blaydon Races” music hall song written and performed by Geordie Ridley in 1862. The song charts the colourful journey from Balmbra’s in Newcastle to the racecourse site at Blaydon Island. The site of the original races is long gone following the dredging of the River Tyne but there is now a modern road race held on June 9th which follows follows the route taken by original spectators on the omnibus from Newcastle. Let us know if you come across the painting so we can get details for our records!

The final years....

In the last decade of his life although John still sold work it was only to people who approached him directly. He began to concentrate on projects that interested him purely from an artistic point of view and to buy back paintings of his own as they began to come onto the market again. John was always more interested in painting than in promoting his work and as a result, despite the critical acclaim he received in the national press in the early years, his popularity was limited largely to the North-East. He often half-joked that he would only become famous after his death. On the night he died John’s family decided to work towards making sure that his legacy lives on.

"The Last Cage Down"

…an exhibition which brings together works of art that portray the declining years of the coal mining industry opens on May 3rd at the Mining Art Gallery in Bishop Auckland. John’s painting “Reclamation Percy Pit” will be on show as part of it. The Mining Art Gallery is part of the Auckland Project which features two art galleries, a castle, a museum, a 15 metre tall viewing tower, three restaurants, a kitchen garden and a deer park and makes for a wonderful day out in the heart of County Durham.

Two watercolours are up for auction....

…at Anderson & Garland Auctioneers in Newcastle (and online) on Wednesday 20th March.

LOT 566 is "Dunstanburgh Castle from Newton", signed and dated 28th November '73.
We know from notes on an exhibition catalogue that it was sold originally at the Bondgate Gallery in Alnwick for the princely sum of £50 - about £650 in today’s money.

LOT 577 is "Footbridge Skye", signed, annotated, and dated '92. This painting has never been sold before as John gifted it to a good friend.

https://www.andersonandgarland.com/auction/search/?st=john%20peace&sto=0&au=692&sf=%5B%5D&w=False&pn=1