Geoff Butterworth speaks about Castleton Art Gallery

Geoff Butterworth

4 More Image(s) In Gallery

Local artist Geoff Butterworth has spoken about his new and local charity art gallery after opening up a display of his work in Castleton earlier this month.

The Castleton Bank Galley is currently housing three floors of Mr Butterworth’s work in order to raise funds for the Rochdale Connections Trust after Rochdale Online director John Kay donated the use of the building.

www.rochdaleonline.co.uk/news-features/138/community-news/104434/new-art-gallery-in-castleton

Mr Butterworth explained what is on show at the gallery, which is open from 12.00pm to 4.00pm every Saturday and Sunday for the foreseeable future: “It’s mostly water colour paintings but there is quite a mix of subjects from all over the country, and there are over 100 paintings and about 40 limited edition prints altogether.

“I have done a good mix of local subjects, so plenty of it is of local interest. Some of the paintings are of Rochdale in black and white from the 1960s, so some people would remember those. I like to paint Urban landscapes with life in the subject and I also enjoy doing areas of Littleborough, where I grew up, and different parts of the Rochdale canal.

“I also intend to paint the new bridge in the town centre at some point, and that will go up for sale. I’ve got some photos there from a really sunny evening, and I may even set up an easel there and just paint. I intend to crack on in the next few weeks, so watch this space.

“There are a few oil paintings, too. The subject of those are beach scenes of Filey, a town near Scarborough on the East Coast.”

Some visitors have travelled the length of the country to see Mr Butterworth's work, he said:

“The gallery is open at weekends but we are open to allowing people in during the week. A couple from Dover recently came in during the week. They had a good look around the place and bought a painting. We had a flurry of people in last weekend that were really surprised that Castleton has got something like this.

"Anyone can make an appointment to come in on a week day because everything is there for them to see.

“We have sold a few paintings, so with 20% of the sales of those going to Rochdale Connections Trust and over 200 raffle tickets sold, we’ve already raised over £500.

“We’re hoping to get art groups in so I can do a talk or demonstration. We want people to be aware of what we’re doing because the building is available for different groups to come and look around.”

Mr Butterworth won’t be present at the gallery this weekend (27, 28 August) but members of the Rotary Club of Rochdale, the organisation which is sponsoring the event, will be in attendance.

Entry to the gallery is free, and raffle tickets are being sold for £1 each for the first prize of Mr Butterworth’s painting of Yorkshire Street, Rochdale.

Raffle tickets can be bought via the Rochdale Online owned Gigabuy website at:

• https://www.gigabuy.co.uk/Raffle-tickets-Rochdale-Connections-Trust.html

Prints of Mr Butterworth's paintings can also be viewed and bought via the Gigabuy website:

• https://www.gigabuy.co.uk/Geoff-Butterworth-Fine-Arts