search
date/time
Lancashire Times
A Voice of the Free Press
frontpagebusinessartscarslifestylefamilytravelsportsscitechnaturefictionCartoons
Andrew Liddle
Guest Writer
1:01 AM 14th January 2025
arts

Colin Neville’s Decade Of Art For The People

Colin Neville
Colin Neville
When Colin Neville began his big arts’ project in Bradford, he little imagined that its tenth anniversary would fittingly coincide with the 2025 City of Culture status.

‘What started as a small local project confined to Silsden is now district wide. I thought it would keep me busy for a few weeks, and here we are - a decade on. And it will go on for as long as I do!’

The advert-free website, Not Just Hockney, freely accessible, is ten years old this month. “Its aim is to highlight the life and work of professional visual artists, past and present,” says Colin, “with either birth or long-term work or residence links with the city.”

Back in 2015, the Silsden-based University of Bradford lecturer, originally from Dagenham in east London, decided to put his retirement to good use and his interest in art had recently been stimulated anew.

“My two step-children, Jan and Matthew, studied art at Glasgow School of Art, and our visits to their annual art shows sparked my interest in the visual arts, and particularly the life and work of individual artists.”



His Open University degree studies also contained a module on art history.

As he celebrates the tenth anniversary of www.notjusthockney.info, the profiles of professional visual artists have swelled to some 470, almost equally divided between living and departed. “Although the internationally acclaimed David Hockney has due prominence on the site, the 'just' in the title acknowledges and asserts that the Bradford district has a rich legacy in nurturing the talent of local artists,” he says.

“One of the aims in setting up the site was to showcase the marvellous visual art talent locally, past and present. I have zero art talent myself, but I’m drawn to the work of artists, as I admire the way they think and act creatively, do their own thing, and go their own way in life. That can take a lot of courage, and certainly reveal an independent streak.’

The site includes profiles, arranged alphabetically, of painters, printers, social-documentary photographers, as well as those who work in a three-dimensional way, including textile artists, sculptors, jewellery designers, and ceramics artists.

The ‘My Art’ section includes statements written by a selection of the featured artists, explaining in their own words their artwork. Colin himself writes about paintings to be found in local public art galleries, and the site also includes a selection of films featuring local children talking about paintings on display in Cartwright Hall, Bradford, that they liked, and why.

Colin has also written ten books on past local artists, including ‘Lesser-Known Artists of the Bradford District’, ‘Bradford District Murals’ and ‘Past Silsden Artists’. His publications on individual artists include the great Joe Pighills of Haworth; the Official War Artists, Richard Eurich and William Rothenstein; and the graphic artist, Frank Newbould. The books can all be purchased via the site and profits from sales support the community management, Silsden Town Hall, which is an important cultural venue in the town.

Colin, who has been living in West Yorkshire for more than 40 years and is married to Wendy, from the Fairweather Green area of Bradford, has also organised local art exhibitions. The most recent in 2024 was the two-day ‘Silsden in Art’ show at the Town Hall, where paintings illustrating the Silsden town and countryside were exhibited alongside artwork by living local artists of all levels of ability.

Next year Colin will celebrate another anniversary. In February 2016 he formed a project partnership with Bradford UNESCO City of Film, who manage the public Big Screen in Centenary Square. Every day since then examples of artwork by local artists have been shown on the screen at 12.30pm in subject-themed presentations, such as ‘Colour’; ‘Nature’; ‘Land & Sea’; ‘People’. Typically, the work of six local artists is featured in each six-minute presentation: three artwork images per artist, along with their contact details.

Since the start of the project more than 500 artwork images have been featured, often giving emergent artists a first chance to show their work.

‘The daily presentations help to make local art more accessible, and particularly to people who might not otherwise visit an art gallery’, said Colin.

The Big Screen is now a Bradford icon, an endlessly changing visual display of the best the city has to offer. Seen by all people who cross City Hall square, it is an ideal medium to showcase the work of Bradford artists, a perfect visual expression of a city of culture.