Joe has now stamped his inimitable style on a glorious, action-packed oil painting of the Rotherham stately home to help its fundraising.
Joe knew the mansion long before, though…
In his youth, Joe was a miner at Thorpe Hesley Colliery. Every day, when he finished his shift at the coal face and came up from the shaft, there it was on the horizon.
“I knew it as the Big House and admired it on my way to the pit bath house. I never thought I’d ever step inside it, let alone be asked to paint it,” said Joe, who was a miner for six years before quitting to pursue life as an artist.
The dazzling colours of daylight which hit him when he got back above ground each working day had inspired him to paint, and he’s never looked back.
Thanks to a commission from Dame Julie Kenny, the Rotherham businesswoman who created the Wentworth Woodhouse Preservation Trust and campaigned to purchase and save the Grade I listed mansion, hundreds of supporters can now own a copy of Joe’s latest masterpiece!
We are selling a limited number of signed prints to raise much-needed funds to regenerate the house, its Stables, Riding School and Camellia House.
There are 100 canvas versions for sale at £200 and 250 matt and 250 silk prints at £100.
Outside, a line of guards from the Marquis’s own regiment and a procession of cars through the ages are arriving… including the early 1900s Sheffield Simplex which Earl Fitzwilliam funded, and those of King George and Queen Mary, who stayed at the house in 1912.
In the background, the Gate House, Stables, Camellia House and monuments can be seen, along with Lady Mabel College students and cricketers on the Wentworth Green,
Right in the centre of the picture is Dame Julie.
“I couldn’t leave her out - she is in the entrance to the Marble Saloon, wearing the pale blue outfit she wore to Buckingham Palace to receive her Damehood,” said Joe, who spent almost four months on the work, which currently hangs at Julie’s home.
She plans to loan it to the house and a special place has been earmarked for when it opens again in September (Government Covid-19 restrictions permitting).
Prints and canvases are available HERE
