Click on the title above to see the list

Tom had an unusual technique for working in watercolour, or, more accurately, gouache (opaque water based paint), He painted in thick gouache, leaving areas he wanted to be dark grey free from paint. When dry he would cover the whole picture with Indian ink. The painting was then washed (often in the shower!) Soaked-in colour and Indian ink was then left, giving a soft, subtle effect. When dry again he would usually add detail with Indian ink.

Tom McGuinness sometimes engraved his mining scenes directly onto copper plated with a tool called a burin. The image is printed in a simalar way to etchings, but the linear construction of the image is evident as is a lack of texture. These original prints are difficult to photograph, so please refer to the list at the end of the mining section.

Etchings: A mix of beeswax, resin and bitumen is used to coat a metal plate. The surace is hardened and covered in soot with the flame fom a tallow candle. The wax surface is then scratched to create the desired image. The plate is the submerged in acid which eats away the area where the metal has been exposed. After a numbers of trails and 'artist's proofs' the wax coating is removed and the plate ready for printing. It is inked so that the grooves retain the ink, then roughened damp paper is put into the press and the image (plus the mark of the plate around the edges) pressed onto the paper.
Most of Tom's original prints (pictures conceived only as a print and constructed on the plate by the artist himself, as opposed to the reproduction of an existing picture) make use of a number of methods, often combining etching with engraving and aquatint. Aquatint involves the texturing of the plate surface in adidition to the linear processes of etching and/or engraving.

McGuinness worked as a miner, initially at Annfield Plain and then at Fishburn. He studied art part time at the Art School in Gladstone Street Darlington, and became a member of the Sketching Club at the Spennymoor Settlement. He has exhibited widely and his pictures of miners and their community is sought avidly by collectors of this genre. Very distinctive, his work is characterized by a thorough understanding of his subject, a wonderful sense of colour and a distinctive way of drawing figures, great emphasis being placed on an attenuated depiction of limbs. Most of our selection is from his sought-after earlier period when his colours combine richness with subtlety, but not his very early work which is painted with black outlines filled with solid colour and lacks fluidity.
Two books have been written about Tom and His work, both by Robert McManners and Gillian Wales:
Tom McGuiness, the art of an underground miner, Gemini Productions, 1977 and McGuinness Interpreting the Art of Tom McGuinness, Gemini Productions 2006.

Mining and Industrial Art is an area of collecting which is growing strongly. The play 'The Pitmen Painters' and musical 'Billy Elliot' have both helped to draw attention to this genre. More importantly we feel that this art is the best way of preserving and almost vanished but massively important part of our industrial heritage. Click on the title above for more of our viws on this subject.