Back to the drawing board
Renowned sculptor Graham goes back to his first love in new exhibition...
A NOSTALGIC era has been brought to life in charcoal by artist Graham Ibbeson at the Cooper Gallery.
The display is up and running until October 1, visitors to the ‘High Noon to Midnight’ exhibit can expect to see the western era motifs of the snake belt, sheriff star and tin bath feature in a collection of charcoal drawings, personal to Graham’s childhood and family.
Whilst recovering serious illness back in 2019, Graham returned to his love of drawing, and the exhibit features 30 artworks on display for the first time, as well as a further six sculptures.
“We all have heroes but cowboys and western figures were mine,” he said. “It’s about my childhood – my grandson becomes the Barnsley Bandit, with elements of romanticism too.
“Again I wanted to get back to why I wanted to be an artist in the first place.
“I wanted to be creative and start to do big drawings again, which are usually based on my family.
“When I started to feel better, the first sculpture I did was of a young girl dressed as an Indian.
“I then did a cowboy too – it’s almost like the Wild West of Yorkshire.
“My work is narrative, so I tell a story. It’s given me my freedom back at 70, a new lease of life and I’m really enjoying it. It’s an exhibition full of humour too.”
Graham said his family, who are heavily featured in the collection, are very much used to being referenced now. My grandchildren who are 11 and 12 wanted pocket money for posing, so have been negotiating with me. Some of the older drawings are of my 18-yearold granddaughter from when she was six or seven.”
Graham was offered the exhibition by the Cooper Gallery for his seventieth year, and brought in his cousin Paul Thwaites, to accompany the artwork with his poetry.
“I gave my cousin 23 images and asked him to gives his interpretation in words. I afforded him the freedom to use the drawings as a base to do his own thing.
“Usually a drawing is illustrating a poem, but here it is the other way around. It is two individual stand alone pieces unified by an image.”
Published exclusively for the exhibition is a limited edition signed book, which is available to purchase at the Cooper Gallery.
The exhibition sees an overlap with Graham’s ‘Casting Characters’, which has been on display in Barnsley Museums at the Glass Works since March 26, and will be closing its doors for the final time on Sunday.
Graham said he’s been really pleased with the exhibit there so far, with over 12,000 people paying a visit to see iconic figures from stage and screen immortalised in fibreglass.
Commenting on the reaction from the public, Graham said: “It’s laughter. A lot of people remember these people from TV and film.
“This is special because all of these pieces were made within ten minutes of the Glass Works – such as Eric Morecambe and Laurel and Hardy.
“It’s been brilliant to see people shopping and seeing the work. I’m astounded at the reaction.”
Graham hopes to set up a tour of the ‘Casting Characters’ exhibition in the future.