ARTIST'S WORK EXPECTED TO FETCH UP TO pounds 200,000.

THE contents of the Northumberland studio of a leading artist are to be sold tomorrow.

Kenneth Rowntree, who died in 1997, lived at Acomb and then in Front Street, Corbridge, where he had his studio in the attic.

From 1959 until his retirement in 1980, he was Professor of Fine Art at Newcastle University. The sale of more than 350 lots at Anderson & Garland's Newcastle auction rooms is expected to raise between pounds 130,000 and pounds 200,000.

As well as his output of paintings, Mr Rowntree provided watercolours for the Recording Britain project in the 1940s.

It was run by the Government and financed by the Pilgrim Trust to record the face of England and Wales before development or wartime destruction changed it beyond recognition.

Recording Britain covered a total of 36 counties. He also illustrated Shell guides to Britain, the Shell calendar, book and magazine covers, worked on the Festival of Britain and was commissioned by the Government to paint subjects along the route of the Queen's coronation procession in 1953.

His former colleague at Newcastle University, Prof John Milner, said: "He was an extraordinary talent."

At Newcastle, his teaching staff included Victor Pasmore, who designed the Apollo Pavilion in Peterlee.

CAPTION(S):

RESPECTED One of the paintings by the late Kenneth Rowntree, left, which is on sale at Anderson and Garland.