An Eye on the Pennines – June 2025

Bowlees Visitor Centre is hosting an exhibition in June by artist and illustrator, Linda Birch, and author, photographer and artist Christine Ruskin, named, ‘An Eye on the Pennines.’ A variety of Linda’s landscape paintings using oils, watercolour and acrylics will be on display alongside Christine’s images and film footage of ‘The Disappearing Farms of Weardale.’

For a large part of Linda’s career, she worked as a successful illustrator on 200 books and for BBC TV series Bagpuss, The Clangers and Jackanory. Linda runs a summer school in the North Pennines and teaches a regular art class in her local village.

Linda said: “The beauty and atmosphere of the North Pennines are a great inspiration for my work. I trained in fine art and illustration and enjoy working in various media. I write and review for an international magazine and have written several books on painting.”

Christine is a local author who focuses on the buildings of the North Pennines. People in Weardale shared their stories about the farms and let Christine borrow original material which made it possible to bring these farms to life once again.

Christine said: “I have always had a fascination with old buildings and their history. Finding a piece of pottery or an old boot made me think about the people who used to live in these now derelict places. A friend suggested I could make a book about the derelict farms before they disappeared.”

As a keen photographer and an amateur artist, Christine began to paint and photograph derelict farms. This was the start of a two-year project, cataloguing and researching their history. Poring over old maps in County Hall in Durham, Christine had no idea how many of these former farms there were when she started. By the end of the project she had catalogued 165 disused farmsteads.

Linda said: “The exhibition reflects the North Pennines landscape, and the challenges faced by the people who work the land. There are farms dotted across the hills; some still working and others now unused. Christine and I hope that visitors to the exhibition experience the history and echoes of the life of these places.”

Jane Hayes, Communications Assistant at the North Pennines National Landscape, said: “We are always pleased to have opportunities to showcase skilled creatives collaborating, especially those who take their inspiration from what they see around them in the amazing landscape of the North Pennines. This is a wonderful combination of past and present that gives visitors an insight into this area.”

The exhibition is on show daily from 10am to 5pm at Bowlees Visitor Centre, from 1 to 30 June. Please note that the gallery is accessed via stairs. Original artwork and books will be on sale as part of the exhibition.