Artists celebrate favourite landscapes and changing seasons in new show

Steve Spencer from Low Moor in Bradford and Sue Sands from the Worth Valley have collaborated on a new exhibition called To Everything a Season at South Square Centre.

It explores how the artists observed changes across the landscape during the changing seasons.

The lockdowns of recent years impacted freedoms and artists found it particularly challenging.

They kept in touch through social media and realised they shared many common aims, leading to them forming the Beck Art Group in May 2021, holding their first group exhibition The Things That Make Us at Trapezium, Bradford, later in 2021.

Mr Spencer, a former editorial artist, said lockdown gave him the opportunity to re-connect with the landscape around South Bradford.

Ms Sands, with her love of impressionism and colour, found pattern, light and shade attracted her gaze.

South Square is a collection of 19th Century workers cottages, in the old Yorkshire village of Thornton, famous for its Brontë connections and its impressive 20-arch viaduct.

Renovated as a community arts centre in 1982, South Square Centre is now home to ten studio spaces for a variety of artists, as well as a gallery, community spaces, archive, fine art framers, bar and a cafe.

A South Square spokesman said: “Steven and Sue are influenced by the landscape around them, observing the changes within the landscape as nature paints new layers over those that have faded. The work on show illustrates how they have responded to those changes over the course of a year.

“Worth Valley artist Sue continues to be inspired by the tangled, colourful chaos nature weaves in the fields and hedgerows throughout the Spring and Summer. Her love of paint and stitch often combine in her beautiful and vibrant creations.

“For Bradford artist Steven, this exhibition marks a return from post-industrial themes to landscapes.”

‘To Everything A Season’ runs until the end of November. Find out more at southsquarecentre.co.uk/exhibitions