THE Ilkley stained glass artist Jonathan Cooke is one of six artists selected to show his artwork on Bradford Big Screen daily throughout January and February next year.

The presentation has been organised by Silsden art supporter, Colin Neville, who curates the Not Just Hockney website, in association with Bradford UNESCO City of Film. The Not Just Hockney website features the life and work of nearly 500 professional visual artists, past and present, from across the Bradford district and has been organising Big Screen presentations of local artwork since 2016.

“All the featured artists have been asked to select three of their representative artwork images to be shown on the screen, together with a statement from each explaining their work. In addition to Jonathan, with his brilliant stained glass artwork, there are two professional painters, a tapestry weaver, a documentary photographer, and a jewellery designer. ‘

‘These ‘Artist’s Choice’ presentations illustrate the wide range of visual art to be found in the district. This will not just promote the artwork of the featured artists, it will hopefully support the Bradford 2025 bid to become City of Culture by showcasing the range of art talent in the district. And it’s not just the visual arts; the judges will weigh up all the other creative activity locally - the music, dance, drama, writing, and everything else where people use their imagination and inventiveness. ‘

Jonathan Cooke writes: “In contrast to the demands of monumental scale work such as Cliffe Castle’s grand staircase window, which I completed last year, I create small, intricately detailed, often quirky narrative panels using traditional stained glass techniques - to commission, for exhibitions, and sometimes simply because an idea won’t go away… “

The other five featured artists from across the Bradford district are tapestry weaver, Chrissie Freeth, painters David Starley and Ben Snowden, documentary photographer, Simon Sugden, and jewellery designer, Margaret Naylor.

The seven-minute presentations are shown on the Big Screen at 12.30pm each day.

Mr Neville will be planning five other bi-monthly ‘Artist’s Choice’ presentations in 2021.

“I will certainly be approaching other professional Ilkley based artists to feature their work next year on the screen. Ilkley is a marvellous place to find talented visual artists .”