Tom McGuiness (1926 - 2006)

Tom McGuiness is probably best known as a 'pitman painter'. He worked in the coal mines when he was conscripted as a Bevin Boy in 1944. He studied art at night school in Darlington and was a member of The Spennymoor Settlement in the late 1940s. The Spennymoor Settlement art group,at this time, had a number of members who would go on to produce works which would prove very popular and included Norman Cornish. Tom has had numerous solo exhibitions, including the Bowes Museum, Barnard Castle, the Civic Hall, Stanley and Bishop Auckland Town Hall. Further reading can be found in the book Shafts of Light: Mining Art in the Great Northern Coalfield, by Robert McManners and Gillian Wales.