Malcolm's roots are firmly planted in the North
East of England, an area whose character and landscape has been
defined by its industrial history. His forefathers were lead
miners working the seams on bleak Alston Moor, and successive
generations coal mined in Tynedale and close to Newcastle. Malcolm
himself was born in the Elswick district of Newcastle in 1944,
and lived and worked for much of his life near to the city.
For the past twenty years he has lived in a market town in Northumberland.
Malcolm’s passion for painting has always been an integral
part of his life. In his early career as a teacher his interest
in art took up much of his spare time, and in more recent years
he has occupied three galleries in the North East and has devoted
more and more time to his painting. He holds regular solo exhibitions
all over the UK, and one such exhibition, 'A Glimpse of the
Great North', was televised by the BBC.
Much of Malcolm’s work has arisen from
the industrial history of his local area. His love of these
locations and his genuine admiration for the scenes and characters
he recreates comes across in the strong sense of community and
camaraderie that defines all of his highly evocative work. It
is the honesty of his approach that sets his work apart from
his contemporaries however; he has an extraordinary ability
to convey the reality of everyday life and the atmosphere of
each scene, rather than simply to recreate the literal image.
“For me my personal identity has always been linked with
a sense of social togetherness which was so much a part of my
own childhood, and it is this sense of loyalty and shared experience
that I aim to capture in my paintings.”
