Bob Olley in conversation with Bishop Auckland Mining Art Gallery founders: review

On the evening of 11 June, the Spanish Gallery in Bishop Auckland hosted an entertaining and thought-provoking conversation between well-known mining artist Bob Olley and  Dr. Robert McManners OBE and Gillian Wales, the founders of the much respected Gemini Collection of Mining Art.

Those present were able to hear from Bob Olley about his fascinating journey from the mining industry to becoming a celebrated professional painter, as he reflected on his iconic works and their significance in documenting the essence of mining life.

The event was held against the backdrop of the upcoming Bishop Auckland Mining Art Gallery exhibition, The Last Cage Down.

This exhibition, which we were able to take a first look at, explores the important legacy of the Miners’ Strike of 1984-85.

The event

The evening began with Gillian Wailes introducing us to the evening and to Bob Olley in particular, speaking warmly of his talents as an artist.

Next up was Gillian’s colleague Robert McManners who talked about the way that the great Gemini collection came together. Robert relayed to us how he and Gillian had become aware of the huge wealth of wonderful mining art that there is from the North East, from the Ashington Group, from people like Norman Cornish and Tom McGuiness based around Spennymoor, but also crucially a number of other artists who were not as well known, but deserve to be. 

Furthermore, Robert told us about the way that in the 1990s he and Gillian had decided to not just wrote about the mining art. but to start collecting it, so that it can be preserved.  We were then regaled with the humorous story of how the first painting they bought, on the subject of the Durham Miners Gala, which was about seven feet long had to put in a small car, with Gillian underneath it!

Robert also told us how his own painting, Dean and Chapter Colliery Closing, had come about as he took a day off university in 1968 to watch the demolition of the huge Dean and Chapter Colliery in his hometown of Ferryhill in County Durham. The painting is appropriately part of the Last Cage Down exhibition.

Bob Olley

Then we had the star of the show, 84-year old miner artist Bob Olley.

Through a series of slides, including the front cover of their own excellent book, Shafts of Light, which features an Olley painting, McManners and Wailes asked Bob Olley a number of questions about both his life and his art work. 

Bob was born in 1940 and grew up.in South Shields and started his working life as a painter and decorator, before spending 17 years down mines including Whitburn.  Bob also did a correspondence course for four years and through that was able to become artist and illustrator for magazines such as Woman’s Own.

Perhaps Bob’s most well-known artwork is the famous Westoe Netty painting. Bob told us how, although this particular toilet was knocked down, he had been able to rescue the bricks and it ended up at Beamish Museum – but had to be taken down as it was being used as a toilet!

Bob told us many funny stories, which highlighted just how much humour there had been down the pit… but also mentioned that he had seen tragic events as well. The humour is certainly a major part of Olley’s work, which I would recommend all readers to have a look at:

As we were in Bishop Auckland one of the two places with connections to and statues of the great comedian Stan Laurel, it was also appropriate and interesting to hear Bob tell of how he was involved in sculpting both statues.    

All in all, it was an interview which was both poignant and amusing and well worth me coming from Newcastle to see.

Thought-provoking art pieces

After the conversation between McManners, Wailes and Olley, we were able to take an early peak at the new exhibition at the Bishop Auckland Mining Art Gallery, The Last Cage Down, which commemorated the 40^th anniversary years of the  Miners’ Strike, while the infamous event at Orgreave was 40 years ago  in June 1984..

In the exhibition there are many fine, thought provoking pieces of art. 

Orgreave after Guernica

One of these was the Bob Olley painting Orgreave after Guernica, in which Olley re-imagines the famous work by Picasso as being about what happened at Orgreave forty years ago this month.  Robert Olley is quoted as saying, “Guernica, the huge abstract painting by Picasso of the bombing of the Spanish town of the same name during the Spanish Civil War, is a work I have always admired. Orgreave after Guernica was inspired by this unique work of art”.

Miners Strike of 1984

Another painting in a similar vein, is Miners Strike of 1984 by Barrie Ormsby, a painting which contrasts a peaceful miners’ picnic, with the threat of violence from police.  It is noted in the museum that, “artist Barrie Orsmby drew inspiration from a photograph of Hatfield Main Colliery in Yorkshire but placed the miners and police within his own local landscape of West Durham.”

The Mining Art Museum also has an excellent permanent collection including works by Norman Cornish, such as Crowded Bar.

This was an excellent evening and well worth going to. 

Further information

For more information about the great Mining Art Museum and the Last Cage down exhibition please see here, and here for more about the Auckland project in general. The Mining Art Museum and the wider Auckland Project are both well worth visiting if you are anywhere near Bishop Auckland.

There has been much talk recently about how we can achieve a Just Transition in the North East from a fossil-fuel based economy to one based on renewables.  Part of this Just Transition really should include an appreciation of the heritage of the mining industry and not least the wonderful mining art that is a central part of it.

Let us remember the past with pride, as we build a bright new future.