A VISITING artist presents the finished work from his residency at a Furness pub with a new exhibition opening next week.

William Wood was commissioned to create artworks inspired by the local landscape during his time at The Crown, at North Scale, last summer - part of the pub's 150th anniversary celebrations.

During his time on Walney Island he immersed himself within the surroundings by painting the views and skies, from land and sea, and taking to the water aboard the Walney-moored schooner, Dundee.

From The Peninsula is the culmination of his stay, and will go on display at Signal Films' Cooke's Studios, in Abbey Road, Barrow, from Tuesday September 27 to Saturday October 29.

Bakewell-born Wood studied fine art at Loughborough University, and has exhibited extensively in the UK. Alongside his work as a painter he teaches fine art in colleges throughout Derbyshire, and has been developing the works of locations such as Piel Island and Furness Abbey in his Nottingham studio based on his extensive sketches.


William Wood working on Walney last summer The exhibition will be part of Signal's young people's projects Cooke's Crew and Get Digital, and the event will act as a live project for the participants to get involved in the organising and filming of the workshops, events and putting up of the work itself.

The young people will have the opportunity to work with the artist in a mark-making workshop on Earnse Bay and a photography session at Furness Abbey - both inspiration for Wood's own work.

The participants will produce a body of work in response to the exhibition and their contact with the artist resulting in their own celebratory event in December.

Rachel Capovila, Signal project manager, says: "This is a lovely opportunity for Signal to facilitate a young upcoming artist like William, with his first solo exhibition, in keeping with the companies values of enabling young people to reach their potential within the creative sector.

"William is going to be engaging with some of our young people within a creative process which will result in their own landscape inspired work. Which in turn will hopefully help them reassess their relationship with the local area."

Wood's fascination with the strong legacy of art and literature in Cumbria is interestingly translated through this exhibition at Signal Films.

The exhibition also includes a short film created on Piel Island: The offcomers is a series of short discussions between William Wood and poet Mark Ward.

Blackburn-born Ward, aka The Urban Poet, lives and works in Grasmere, where he maintains William Wordsworth’s former home of Dove Cottage and its grounds.

As part of the exhibition Mark will be at Signal to share his poetry and thoughts through discussion on Wednesday September 28, from 7pm.

Catherine Kay, from The Wordsworth Trust, will also be presenting Wordsworth with a local slant to the Furness Area on Wednesday October 19, again at 7pm.

The exhibition and events both offer free entry.

From The Peninsula is open at Cooke's Studio from 10am to 5pm each day.