PAULINE HOLT VISITORS to a North pub could be forgiven for thinking they have stepped inside an art gallery featuring some of the major painters of the last century. Gracing the walls of the Black Horse in Kells Lane, Low Fell, Gateshead, are various paintings just like those of the great French Impressionist Claude Monet, the Spanish surrealist Salvador Dali and French master Henri Matisse. Taking pride of place on this wall of fame, however, is Van Gogh’s Sunflowers in all its glorious yellow splendour. Look a little closer though and you’ll notice that Vincent’s iconic blooms aren’t nestling in their usual earthenware pot . . . instead the celebrated arrangement has been plonked in a Newcastle Brown Ale bottle. Peer a little more attentively at what at first glance looks like one of Monet’s views of the Houses of Parliament and you’ll notice it’s not the Thames but the Tyne that’s depicted here. It’s all the mischievous work of artist Jim Harker, who runs the City Art shop in Durham. The Black Horse just happens to be his local and when landlord Chris Robinson announced he was looking to do the place up a bit, Jim set to work with his paintbrushes to reproduce famous works of art . . . but with a quirky Northern twist. Jim, 59, a graduate of what was Newcastle Art College, has worked in animation in Sweden, Japan and Holland. He recalls: “Chris wanted to redecorate in here and we were chatting about it and he said he was after a sort of art-gallery feel. “Many of the great painters actually came to England during the Franco-Prussian war. Van Gogh lived in Brixton, London, and Monet stayed at the Savoy hotel where he painted the Houses of Parliament from his balcony. “So we thought, ‘What if all these virtually unknown painters had come instead to Newcastle, to try the beer? What would they have painted?” Chris adds: “After years of having your typical pub pictures like ‘man with sheep’, we were looking for something a bit more unusual. I have an interest in art and obviously Jim has, so we started talking about what we could do. “The first thing we came up with was the sunflowers in the Brown Ale bottle and it just stemmed from there. Our customers’ reaction was fabulous. I’ve had people wanting to buy them and people have come in and taken photos of them on their mobile phone cameras.” Jim, who specialises in pet and horse portraits, has even started doing commissions for people wanting his witty brand of North East modern art. He explains: “I’ve done The Scream after Edvard Munch for someone. But the subject of my painting was screaming because he’d knocked a bottle of Broon over.” There’s definitely a drinking theme to much of Jim’s work. And his latest commission has caused quite a bit of debate in the Black Horse snug . . . as it was to paint a new pub sign for the 18th century coaching inn. Which painter should he pay homage to on such a grand scale, bearing in mind that the sign will cover much of the pub’s gable end? It couldn’t be one of Matisse’s nudes, much as Jim might have relished reproducing them. “I was told to keep it clean and family friendly,” Jim tells me. Well, we can reveal that Jim has just put the finishing brushstrokes to his own version of Bullfight by Picasso. Instead of a bull, Jim has painted — you’ve guessed it — a cubist-style black horse with both eyes on the same side of its head. And the crowd, instead of bloodthirsty Spaniards baying for the bull’s blood, are English football fans in full cry. The acrylic on canvas work will now go to be digitally expanded before the official unveiling later this year. And no, the London art critic Brian Sewell who said we weren’t as sophisticated in our art appreciation as his posh Southern friends, will not be on the guest list. Jim helps run an online craft store which has branches in Newcastle, Durham and Sunderland. He also has his own website at www. jimharkerartist.co.uk | 
