Art of crime-fighting.

Byline: By David Whetstone 

Artists have been donating paintings in a bid to combat crime, as David Whetstone explains.

The chance arises early next month to acquire a new painting for the home and to make a small but significant contribution to combating crime in the North-East.

More than 50 artworks will go on sale on September 6 in a sale organised by the charity Northumbria Coalition Against Crime.

It's the first time the NCAC, which has offices in Newcastle and at Northumbria Police HQ in Ponteland, has turned to art to boost funds.

Danny Gilchrist, youth and community programme manager of NCAC, said professional and amateur artists had donated work which will go on display at the Discovery Museum, Blandford Square, Newcastle.

These exhibitions are always a mixed bag but they are a chance for artists to put their work before the public.

One of the exhibitors is Steve Lyon-Bowes who lives at Bensham, Gateshead. He describes himself currently as a semi-professional artist. Now aged 37, he sold his first painting at the age of 17.

Recently he was commissioned by Gateshead Council to paint a series of paintings of the newly refurbished Saltwell Park.

How did he come to hear about the NCAC sale? "I enrolled at a life drawing class at the Lyndhurst Centre in Gateshead and when the life model got pregnant, I volunteered to take her place. One of the other people on the course was a member of the Coalition and she asked me if I had any spare paintings. It happened that I was planning to have a bit of a clear-out."

Consequently two Lyon-Bowes watercolours, one of Dunstanburgh Castle and one of Jesmond Dene, will be in the exhibition and up for sale. And if you are wondering about Steve's striking surname, an inversion of a very famous one, he says his grandfather did some exploration of the family tree and got back 100 years before hitting a brick wall. "It's something I plan to look into one day."

There are further donations from a pair of established artists from Hawick, Lindsay and Hugh Roberts, and also from Danny Gilchrist's son, Ben, who is 18 and about to embark on a fine art foundation course at Newcastle College, having recently passed his art A-level.

Ben, who lives in Winlaton Mill, says he fancies doing something art or film-related in the future but it's early days.

There are also two very accomplished paintings by an artist called Wilf Scott which were donated by a woman who attends an art class with one of Danny's colleagues at the NCAC. One shows Durham Cathedral from the station while the other is an industrial riverscape, the Tyne or the Wear.

The NCAC, which was established 15 years ago, works with young people throughout Northumberland and Tyne & Wear who are at risk of offending or re-offending. It assigns one of a team of voluntary mentors to support, educate and challenge each youngster, keeping him or her out of the courts.

Anyone who wants to attend the exhibition's opening evening on September 6, between 6pm and 7.30pm, should ring [phone] by September 2. But the exhibition is open to all from September 7 to 10.