Slater’s art helps draw conclusions about modern life

RECENTLY visited Derek Slater's exhibition at Bertie’s Play House in Durham.

- Giuseppe Bignardi

Mr Slater is a County Durham artist with past experience in the coal mining industry, where he worked for 25 years.

During this time, he received the Sir Derek Ezra Art Trophy, awarded to mining industry workers who have produced outstanding art reflecting their work.

After being made redundant by British Coal, Mr Slater completed a Fine Art degree at the University of Sunderland and went on to combine teaching art with painting.

There is a strong tradition of coal-mining art that depicts the experiences of miners both underground and in their above ground life.

The Pitmen Painters from Ashington, and Norman Cornish, are widely recognised exponents of this genre.

Some of Derek Slater's paintings exposed in Durham are about coal mining and had featured in a book titled The Coal Mine.

However, Slater has gone beyond the coal mining experience, and many of his paintings are about ecological and humanitarian crises.

One of Slater's graphic paintings (Another Pavement Different Street) portrays faceless rough sleepers.