A NORTH Yorkshire artist and musician is to have one of his paintings featured in a new book being published to celebrate 50 years of the Guild of Aviation artists, of which he is a full member.

John Hunter, from Grinton, said: “I’ve been exhibiting at the Mall Galleries in London with the Guild for almost 20 years, and was delighted to find that my ‘Spirit of Leyburn’ painting – exhibited three years ago – has been chosen for the this book.

“It features a ‘preserved’ Spitfire with fictitious codes ‘LYB1940’ surrounded by pencil vignettes of several well-known ‘Leyburn 1940’s weekend’ regulars including the ‘French resistance twins’ and ‘Mr Churchill’ – who if you look closely is making a crafty text.”

The book is called ‘Flight Through the Ages’ and published by Pen and Sword.

Mr Hunter will be mounting a one man exhibition at the Leyburn Arts and Community Centre to coincide with this year’s 40’s weekend.

The original ‘Spirit of Leyburn’ will be hung along with over 40 other paintings – with prints and cards additionally available.

“In addition to my trademark aviation art, there will be rural scenes and some portraits, including one of 40’s entertainer Paul Harper, who I recently worked alongside at the Northallerton ‘Home Front’ day,” said Mr Hunter.

Both he and his daughter, Natasha Harper, have entertained outside the Golden Lion in Leyburn for many years, and the pair recently entertained more than 100 RAF veterans aged between 92 to 10) during the annual ‘Project Propeller’ event at Coventry Airport.

Mr Hunter currently has work exhibited at Bentley Priory through to mid-July, and later in July, he will exhibit some new paintings at the Mall Galleries, London.

“I’ll need to produce some new paintings very soon as due my increasing involvement in local music making, such as Richmond Operatic Society, and several local choirs, time for painting has become very limited,” he said.

The Leyburn Exhibition runs from Thursday, July 4 to Thursday, August 8.