Ghost Walkers, Dean and Chapter Ferryhill

Work enabled by Durham County Council on the Dene Bank Housing Regeneration Art Project 2021-22. Currently on long term loan to Ferryhill Town Hall and displayed in the Council Chamber.

The painting is a direct reference to the celebrated art of Norman Cornish who was a miner at the local colliery. He painted many scenes around the Dene and Chapter Colliery based on his walk to work from nearby Spennymoor. In this painting I have copied two of his figures and placed them like ghostly apparitions walking along the path from Spennymoor to Dene and Chapter Colliery now vanished under reclaimed land which has been planted with tnative rees. , Adrian, as if they were walking side by side deep in conversation. On the horizon to the right is a terrace of miners cottage at Dene Bank where many of the miners lived. The estate has been partially demolished and the remaining houses renovated to 21st century standards, but you can still see the lines of terraced houses at the top of the bank which feature in many of Cornish’s paintings. In 2022 large scale prints of details of this painting and two others were displayed in windows and doorways of terraced houses awaiting renovation, an outdoor exhibition of my work.

If you would like to purchase this or any of the other paintings and drawings from the project please contact me via email on lionel.playford@gmail.com.