PAINTINGS by former miner Tom McGuinness, 77, are on show in Darlington in his first selling exhibition in four years.

More than 20 original works are on display in the upstairs gallery at Gallerina, in Duke Street, ranging from etchings and lithographs to drawings, watercolours and new oil paintings.

As a young artist, McGuinness first exhibited in the town as a member of Darlington Arts Society. "They used to stick me behind the door where you couldn't see me," he joked, commenting on his appearance at that time.

Several books and short films have been made about his work, and the gallery is showing two documentaries about him which were originally screened at local cinemas.

One picture, Miners Waiting to Ride, was begun in 1978 and has only just been completed.

Gallery owner, Richard Hindle, whose grandparents were neighbours of the artist when they lived in Bishop Auckland, said: "For us to have the opportunity to work in partnership with such an important painter is an honour and is wonderfully exciting."

The exhibition runs until Monday, March 15.

Paintings by McGuinness, which have been bought by collectors around the world, chronicle an important period in North-East working class history, writes Pru Farrier.

The main subject of this exhibition is the miners who, in their matching overalls, present a collective uniformity.

With their distorted shapes, bowed legs, bent backs and heads that seem to be pressed into necks by the weight of their pit helmets, they appear anonymous, lacking individual identity, especially as they are often seen from behind or with faces partly concealed.

Where faces are seen, they look grey, gaunt and expressionless. The groups of men are surrounded and enveloped by walls and machinery; the stance of womenfolk in the street suggests resigned resilience.