Some people might find inviting the public into their back garden a nerve-wracking experience, but for artist David Beresford it’s just another interesting event in a long career of unusual incidents.
He has produced an opera in a disused colliery, toured Mexico with the poet Ian McMillan and was part of the team at Yorkshire TV that made the first episode of Emmerdale.
Next month, he will be one of more than 200 artists welcoming visitors into his working space as part of North Yorkshire Open Studios, which takes place on the weekends of 6-7 and 13-14 June.
David said: “I’ll be showing work that spans 30 years of working in Lower Wharfedale and my travels. It’ll be placed in sheds, in my studio, in the entrance, in the garden – it’s going to be all over the place.
“I’ve also been looking at some of the early landscapes that I’ve never really shown before.”
The son of a miner – his dad worked at Hickleton Main Colliery in Thurnscoe, David went to went to Barnsley School of Art at the age of 14, before being accepted to the Hammersmith College of Art and later the Royal College of Art: “Because it was either art school or down the pit, I suppose.”
There he became interested in film and got his first job at Yorkshire Television in Leeds, where he was part of the team that made the very first episode of what was then called Emmerdale Farm
David later became an independent documentary maker, directing films about Yorkshire Jazz Band and Thurnscoe Harmonic Male Voice Choir, when in 1994 he created an opera with local choirs and bands about a mining disaster of 1944.
He said: “We dug a great big amphitheatre at the derelict Hickleton main pit and managed to get some funding for it.
“All the local people were waiting to see what the weather was like – and if it was good they would turn up. We had to delay starting it because we had a line of people right down into the village, and we did it for three nights running with 2,000 people in the audience.
It was phenomenal.”
David continued to make programmes working with poet Ian McMillan locally and in Argentina and Mexico. This led to an exhibition of paintings and poems in Mexico City.
David’s paintings are inspired by his travels to India, Mexico and Italy, as well as the landscape near his home in Weeton, including the remains of the medieval fortress Rougemont Castle.
He said: “All you can see is earth mounds now, it’s all trees. I was thinking about the sort of people that must have lived there. You can almost hear the kids crying and the people shouting and the horses. I was looking at medieval figures as well and how they used to put animal heads on themselves and dance about – so I did a series of paintings around that.”
David enjoys showing people his work – even if it means having to tidy up his cluttered studio, which he built himself out of straw bales in his one-acre back garden.
Despite his showbiz experiences, he says there is nothing like seeing a visitor connect with his work.
He said: “You can do as many programmes as you like, but someone buying a piece of your work because it moved them is really something else.”
Brochures for Summer Open Studios, which include details of all venues and a map, can be bought online for £5 at nyos.org.uk/brochure. Supporters can become a Friend of NYOS to receive a brochure and 15% off work over £100. Details of the artists taking part are also available at www.nyos.org.uk
More information about David’s art is on his website: www.davidberesfordart.com
