Northumberland-based artist Matilda Bevan makes paintings, drawings, monoprints and collages which often respond to a place and its history. Her images develop from the emotional tone in a landscape painting of the past, or from her own photographs, which form her first step in interpreting a place.

In her exhibition Vein, at the Granary Gallery in Berwick-upon-Tweed, Bevan draws on the work of artist and writer Thomas Hennell (1903-45), who travelled the British countryside documenting rural life in the 1930s. She says, ‘I first saw Hennell’s work in an auction catalogue and was immediately drawn to his confident colour choices. As I came to know about his life and working methods, I was surprised by the richness of his experiences, particularly that he recovered from serious mental illness. He shows empathy for the land, for the people working on it and their satisfaction in manual skills. He embodies values that interest me and that also indirectly inform my work for this exhibition.’ Hennell was killed in 1945 at the age of only 42 while serving as a War Artist in the Far East.

The exhibition includes over fifteen new works by Bevan, alongside five by Thomas Hennell, on loan from the V&A, Darlington Borough Council and a private collection, which collectively document changes in the landscape during different periods in our history.