THE ESTATE of the late artist, Jack Hellewell (1920-2000) is presenting its first exhibition of lost and found artwork.

Hellewell’s daughter, Rachel Fraser, inherited much of her father’s collection when he died, along with his studio overlooking Ilkley Moor.

She said:“My mother died when I was very young so I found it very difficult to deal with the loss of my father. I locked the place up and avoided thinking about his body of work. The images are all so personal that I couldn’t bring myself to look through the collection until recently.”

For 20 years the studio and collection were locked up "a la Faversham". The only place you could buy a Hellewell was Kentmere House Gallery in York, an exclusive gallery which promoted Hellewell throughout his career and which still holds stock.

In 2019 the studio started leaking and the collection had to be moved to save it from ruin. A portion was sold off to a collector in Brighton, but it turned out that Hellewell was even more prolific than his daughter realised.

“There were canvasses everywhere; under the bed, behind doors, and stacks of portfolios packed with works on paper," she said.

"My daughter decided to take things in hand, and, with the help of Leon Martyn, who is a brilliant Art Consultant, we are bringing a series of exhibitions to my father’s home town over the next year.”

Hellewell was born in Bradford and started his career there as a graphic artist for Pickersgills but his travels with the RAF in the WWII gave him itchy feet and he subsequently roamed all over the world.

He finally settled in Ilkley for the last 30 years of his life and painted the moors and the Yorkshire landscape in all its glorious colour and weather. Much of his work is abstract but accessible.

The current exhibition shows the breadth of his talent with subjects ranging from landscape to still life.

Martyn said, “What is quite unique is that the work is fresh and vibrant, with a very modern feel. This is definitely an artist who should be on every collector’s radar.”.

The exhibition will take place at the Manor House in Ilkley on the weekends of November 13-14 and November 20-21, as well as December 4-5 and December 11-12 from 11am to 4pm.

Visit jackhellewellart.com or @jackhellewellart forfurther information.

Jack Hellewell served with the RAF in North Africa and Italy during the Second World War and his time there influenced his later work. After the war he studied commercial art at Bradford School of Art and then worked as a graphic designer until 1976, when following the death of his wife, he left his job to focus on painting, in the UK and abroad.

Hellewell's work was exhibited at the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition in the 1990s and some of his pieces are in the collections of British Rail, the National Power Company, Rochdale Art Gallery and Manchester City Art Gallery.