AN exhibition is to take place, which will look back at the 60 year career of a man described as one of Yorkshire’s “greatest living artists”.

Peter Hicks: A Retrospective is taking place at the Inspired by… gallery in Danby on the North York Moors and will feature almost 300 works from the 80-year-old artist’s long career, including the work he’s best known for; dramatic landscapes of the North York Moors National Park.

He is said to have gained endless inspiration from the scenery and seasons of the Esk Valley in North Yorkshire, where he lives.

The earliest work dates from 1956 and is a portrait of sunflowers outside Peter’s first studio – his father’s converted garage.

There will also be a sunset painted as part of Peter’s degree show when he went back to college in the 1980s to study for an MA – the first in a series of seven paintings depicting a walk through the night, from dusk till dawn, through Fryupdale in the North York Moors National Park.

The story of the hospital ship Rohilla, which ran aground near Whitby in 1914 with the loss of 83 lives, has inspired another set of paintings.

Peter moved to the Esk Valley from East Yorkshire as a young child and has spent most of his life there.

He said: “I revisit childhood thoughts and experiences and realise how important they are to my work. I’d be playing with my friends and would suddenly see, on a sunny day, how a mist would rise up and suck the colour from the surroundings.

“Those memories were logged and revisited much later in life, and that’s what I’ve continually done – visit and revisit things in this valley that have meaning and purpose.

"So when I look at a hillside, I’m looking at it as it is, but also seeing its history – how it’s evolved, how weather and time have changed it, and that’s very much a part of my practice as a painter.”

The exhibition will be at the gallery from Saturday, September 9, until Monday, October 16.

On Saturday, September 23, from 2pm to 4pm, Peter will be interviewed at the gallery by Yorkshire photographer Joe Cornish. Tickets are £5 and advance booking is recommended at; northyorkmoors-peterhicks.eventbrite.co.uk