AN illustrated lecture about artist Norman Cornish will be held at one of the places he honed his skills, to mark what would have been his 100th birthday.

Mr Cornish was born on November 18, 1919 and a series of events are being held throughout this year to mark his centenary.

He worked as a miner and was an early member of Spennymoor Settlement’s Art and Sketching Group, a group affectionately known as the Pitman Painters, and eventually became a fulltime artist.

Much of his work continued to feature life in and around collieries and the everyday people and places of his hometown. As an artist he gained national recognition which included an Honorary MA from Newcastle University, and in 2008 he was made an MBE.

Following his death on August 1, 2014, there remains a lot of interest in his achievements. Galleries in Bishop Auckland and Spennymoor feature his work, a Cornish trail has been created in Spennymoor and his former home and studio will be recreated in the new 1950s Town at Beamish Museum.

The Bowes Museum is holding the first major retrospective by him entitled Norman Cornish: The Definitive Collection, from tomorrow to February 23.

Visitors to the Barnard Castle based Museum will be able to see more than 60 works including, pastels, charcoals and oil paintings from both public and private collections, some of which are previously unseen.

At 7pm on Monday, November 18, Spennymoor Settlement’s Everyman Theatre, on O'Hanlon Street, will host an illustrated centenary lecture on the Life and Work of Norman Cornish, presented by his son-in-law Mike Thornton.

Tickets are £3, which includes a light buffet, and are available from The Studio, High Street, Spennymoor, or online at ticketsource.co.uk/settlementeveryman or from the Theatre on Saturday mornings between 10am and 11.30am.