Leeds Fine Artists: Marking 150 years of the organisation which celebrates the best of Leeds artistry

“The LFA has been a prominent organisation on the Leeds arts scene for 150 years,” says Paul Hammond, chair of Leeds Fine Artists.

“One of the things that struck me when I was looking into the history of the group was that in the early years several of the members were not only artists of renown but also social reformers. There were a number of artists who were campaigning for women’s rights, for example.”

Among them were Ina Kitson Clarke, who studied at the Slade School Fine Art and was president of the Leeds group for 40 years, and Ethel May Mallinson, who was the first female Lord Mayor of Leeds. Both women were noted campaigners in the suffragette movement.

LFA also has a history of welcoming refugee artists including probably the most well-known of the group’s many acclaimed alumni, Jakob Kramer, who was born in Ukraine but spent much of his working life in Leeds.

“One of the things we can say is that historically LFA has been contributing to the cultural diversity of Leeds not only through the production of artwork but also in terms of social engagement,” says Hammond.

“They were activists on issues of the day and they took in artists from other parts of Europe where they were not welcome.”

In addition, the organisation has always been a forum for people to meet and discuss their artistic ideas, to collaborate on projects and exhibitions.

This opportunity to interact with other creatives is valued by the artists who are involved with the LFA today.

“Being an artist can be quite solitary, so that interaction with other artists is really fulfilling,” says painter Sharron Astbury-Petit who makes mostly figurative paintings rich in symbolism.

“We are all established professional artists and many of us like to experiment, so our technique is always developing and evolving. And as our members are working in so many different styles and media, when we meet up it is always so encouraging and interesting.

“We can exchange information and generally be excited to see what other artists are doing.”

Fellow member Mark Murphy, who makes pencil and watercolour works on paper and large-scale drawings, agrees.

“The LFA are very supportive of creative people and when you spend a lot of time alone in your studio, you can sometimes feel quite isolated,” he says.

“So it is important for us to get together too. We have meetings in Leeds, there is our annual exhibition and then smaller shows are organised between groups of artists several times a year.”

Hammond says the LFA has actively been working over the past year or so on ensuring that post-pandemic, those connections can be renewed.

“For me, the pandemic was very curious as an artist,” says Astbury-Petit.

“On the one hand, you tend to isolate yourself to create, so in some ways not much changed. But on the other hand, exhibitions stopped. I had one in York which opened just before the first lockdown. It was my longest-running exhibition to date and no one could go and see it.

“Also, not long prior to that I had done a sitting with one of my daughters who lives in France, and working on those portraits during lockdown in a strange way, even though she was so far away and I couldn’t see her, it kept her close. It was quite an emotional process and some of that series of work is on show at the Dean Clough exhibition. I have realised recently that the themes of time, morality and renewal recur in my work.”

Kicking off their celebrations is a major exhibition in the Crossley Gallery, at Dean Clough, in Halifax, which runs until early in the new year.

Featuring the work of members of the group, it is a wide-ranging show highlighting a variety of media that includes painting, sculpture, printmaking, ceramics, textiles and drawing.

There are more than 50 artists in the group which is growing – membership is by election and is decided by a panel of current members.

Murphy will be showing his large-scale drawings which he has been focusing on for the past several years.

“I went to art school in St Albans and then to Liverpool University to do my degree in the 1970s. I was taught by students of Frank Auerbach and I was strongly influenced by that approach to figurative painting.

“When I left Liverpool, I had various jobs, then I did a teaching qualification at Goldsmiths and taught in secondary schools for 30 years. I continued with the Auerbach process of building and deconstructing which is very intense and quite physically demanding, creating work throughout my teaching career.

“But when I retired about 13 years ago, I decided I wanted to try something completely different. So I started drawing – I made detailed drawings of artists and historical figures and I was trying to make the drawings as imposing as a painting by making it large scale. Often drawings are regarded as sketches made very quickly but I wanted to do something that is much more solid and permanent.”

After its inception in the late 19th century, Leeds Fine Art Club, as it was then known, became a major player in the intellectual life of the city.

It held regular meetings and debates, which were billed as “conversaziones”, and also hosted annual exhibitions which proved very successful and popular with the public.

The club continued during the First World War, thanks to the dedication and commitment of a small group of members, and the final conversazione took place at Leeds Art Gallery in 1921. Throughout the inter-war years and during the Second World War the club’s activities were maintained and in the post-war era it adopted a more outward-looking and professional approach.

In 2010 LFA dropped “club" from its title, in line with the organisation’s more wide-reaching remit.

Some of the other artists exhibiting at the Dean Clough show include Mark Butler, a sculptor working mainly in cast bronze and whose work is inspired by the landscape of the Yorkshire Dales where he is based.

Catherine Morris creates abstract landscapes, memories of places she has visited often, using collage and her own hand- painted and printer papers, and Roger Gardner makes brightly coloured graphic influenced oil paintings on canvas on a range of themes. Painter Ann McCall’s work focuses on colour, pattern and decorative detail and she develops much of her work initially through sketching in situ.

The LFA is rightly proud of its longevity but as well as looking back at its illustrious past, it is also looking forward.

“The significance of the anniversary is that it is quite rare for an organisation of artists to last this long – and in fact we were founded even before Leeds Art Gallery opened,” says Hammond.

“We have a long tradition and we are very keen to recruit new members. Our particular hope for the future is that we can increase the diversity of the membership.”

The Leeds Fine Artists exhibition runs at Dean Clough’s Crossley Gallery until January 2. leedsfineartists.co.uk