John Welding - Drawing The City - Part 4

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All John Welding posts.

Now, some more of that lovely artwork, remember to click through for bigger images & sorry for the colouration on the images, in reality the background is a dazzling, pure white:

Of course, one of the joys of the exhibition is that this isn't just a gallery show of individual pieces. This is a document of the city's progress. And John engages the visitor in the same relaxed, easygoing and conversational style that I always found in his comics. Take the two images below. In the first John documents the work on Coronation Gardens that has been done to make the place nicer. But finds the stone benches just a touch cold to the backside. But a few months later, across the room and all is well. New benches are a cause for jubilation.


Or there's this image, from the very end of the piece. A nice, relaxed and natural way to end this mammoth journey:

Around the gallery there were a few display cabinets, including this one of the artist's materials and the all important fingerless gloves:

Also on show were selections of John's previous works, none of which, very sadly, is available at the moment. Surely it's time for a major collection?



All in all a wonderful exhibition which runs until June 22nd. Please do your best to get along to see it. Even better, go and see it and then contact:

1. Wakefield Art Gallery - museumsandarts@wakefield.gov.uk to tell them how good it was and petition them to put the completed work on permanent display in the new Hepworth Gallery.
2. John Welding himself and try to convince him to get his work into print again. I'd love to see a collection of his extensive works.
   

John Weldings website, his blog.

Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 all images © copyright john welding