Current affairs: Artist's year in life of Irwell

PAINTER SPENDS 12 MONTHS DOCUMENTING RIVER FOR EXHIBITION

- NEAL KEELING

THE sulphur yellow breast of a grey wagtail. The outline of a roe deer silently springing by a barbed-wire fence. A silouhette of two swans and the speckled back of a trout just below the water's surface.

They are among a glorious collection of watercolours, oil paintings, and ink drawings created over a year by artist Liam Spencer. They are a faithful recording of the wildlife he saw while following the River Irwell from its source on the moors above Bacup to its head at Salford Quays where it joins the Manchester Ship Canal.

As reported in the M.E.N., Liam began his odyssey in December 2021. Now an exhibition of his work made while making the journey has opened at Whitworth Gallery in Rawtenstall.

It captures how nature has reclaimed a river and its banks polluted and scarred by industry. A dipper perched on a river rock biding its time to dive for a minnow and that blue flare - the kingfisher, now a regular sight on the Irwell.

The exhibition, which opened on December 22 contains six oil paintings, 16 watercolours and scores of ink drawings combined into two composite pieces, plus videos. It runs until Sunday, February 19, but gallery is closed for maintenance until January 11.

Liam was born in Burnley in 1964, and studied Fine Art at Manchester Polytechnic, graduating in 1986. He found fame for his vivid portrayals of urban landscapes, particularly of Manchester.