A former Ilkley Grammar School English teacher has opened his own art gallery in Spain.

Colin Bellwood, who taught English at Ilkley Grammar School from 1974 to 1989, has opened Galeria Doreen in Seville.

He divides his time between Spain and his house in Burley-in-Wharfedale.

He attended Leeds College of Art before turning to English teaching as a profession while always continuing his passion of painting.

During the period 1990 to 2002, he managed to have a number of successful entries at the Royal Academy’s Summer Exhibition in London.

With a total of eight works hung over those years at the Royal Academy’s Exhibition, Colin began to exhibit more widely, while working as a supply teacher and in various posts in Bradford schools, before finally leaving teaching in 2001 to concentrate on painting and writing.

Two one-man shows followed in London in 2003 and in 2007, plus one in Edinburgh in 2005.

In 2004 he set up his studio in Seville in Spain and since then he has split his time between there and his home Burley in Wharfedale.

He has also published two novels – Jack Remant in 2008 and The Proof of the Soul in 2011, as well as a book of poems and paintings, Something in Seville in 2012.