Marjorie Arnfield - Coal Mining

Coal Mining

In the early 1990s Arnfield was deeply affected by the demise of the British coal industry, following the government's decision to privatize British Coal, operator of the UK’s coal mines. She decided to capture through her art something of the power and history of the mining industry, which was once a major contributor to the British economy.

In Marjorie Arnfield: Artist's Statement, a document produced for an exhibition at Bishop Auckland Town Hall in 1999, Arnfield wrote that, prior to commencing her mining paintings, she turned to the writings of D. H. Lawrence, some of whose novels had been strongly influenced by the East Midlands coal mines. "The disappearance of the pits that Lawrence knew (following the demise of the British coal mining industry) led me to explore the use of archival photographs as a source material for my paintings of miners at work", Arnfield wrote.

In 1994, British Coal sponsored Arnfield’s exhibition A Tribute to Coal Mining in Nottinghamshire at Nottingham University's Djanogly Art Gallery. She then held a further 20 exhibitions of her mining art under the title "Images of Coal" at museums and art galleries across the UK. In her mining paintings, Marjorie Arnfield focused on historical mining methods, social aspects of mining communities, and the demolition of the pits. Her mining paintings were purchased by private collections, museums and art galleries. Opening an exhibition of Arnfield's coal mining art at Woodhorn Colliery Museum, journalist Kate Adie said "It is only through Marjorie's images that young people of future generations will learn about this once-great industry ."

At an exhibition of her work in Sunderland in 1997, Arnfield commented, "Pitheads, coal-blackened miners returning home, men scavenging for sea coal on beaches remain as vivid memories from my childhood and art school days in the North-East." According to The Artists of Northumbria, Arnfield was one of the few British women artists to show a particular interest in the theme of coal mining.

In July 2007, the Public Catalogue Foundation said it would include a photograph of Arnfield's Keep The Pits Open: Protest painting in its forthcoming Oil Paintings in Public Ownership: West Yorkshire catalogue. The painting itself is held in the National Coal Mining Museum for England in Wakefield, West Yorkshire.

In September 2010, the Woodhorn Museum held a two-month exhibition of mining paintings titled Shafts of Light, which included "Marjorie Arnfield's powerful perspective on the Miner's Strike," a museum press release announced (http://www.experiencewoodhorn.com/shafts-of-light/). The bulk of the artwork on show was part of the Gemini Collection owned and administered by Robert McManners and Gillian Wales. McManners and Wales are authors of "Shafts of Light," a book about mining artists which includes Arnfield.

Examples of Marjorie Arnfield's coal mining art can be seen on the BBC's Your Paintings website, which is operated in partnership with the Public Catalogue Foundation http://www.bbc.co.uk/arts/yourpaintings/paintings/search/painted_by/marjorie-arnfield