How Ian Mood Found His Manchester Mojo

An artist has swapped Cape Cod for Castlefield and substituted Strangeways and Salford Lads’ Club for sunny seascapes.

Manchester painter Ian Mood criss-crossed the Atlantic for ten years, selling scenes of the sun-drenched Massachusetts coast to New York collectors.

But when the fine art graduate met local gallery owners Susan Eyres and Martin Regan, the pair convinced him to try his hand at painting closer to home. Since Martin’s sudden death in 2017, Gateway Gallery in Greater Manchester, UK, has continued to nurture Ian and will host his second solo show from 23 March-13 April 2019.

Ian said: “Martin and Susan proved to me that there was a market in Manchester beyond Lowry pastiches.

“It is largely down to their patient fostering of northern artists that the painting coming out of the region now reaches way beyond appropriations of matchstick men, flat caps and billowing factories”.

Ian’s forthcoming show at the Hale gallery includes fresh takes on many local landmarks, including Blackfriars Bridge, Salford Museum, the Castlefield arches and Manchester Cathedral.

A depiction of local legend Julie Hesmondhalgh, who played Hayley Cropper in Coronation Street until 2014, also features amongst his canvases. Ian was recently artist-in-residence at the Royal Exchange Theatre in Manchester, where he was able to capture Julie rehearsing for her lead role in the production Mother Courage.

Susan said: “There is not a traditional representation of a factory, mill or any other northern trope in sight amongst the oil paintings and charcoal drawings that make up Ian’s most recent body of work.

“In Great Bridgewater Street, an ethereal Beetham Tower rises above a mere suggestion of the arched Metrolink bridge, whilst in Salford Lads’ Club the Edwardian redbrick facade seems to glow against the counterpoint of its blue green paintwork.”

With his first child born in September, Ian now calls Tameside village Broadbottom home and is finally happy to put down some roots.

“I’ve lived in Chorlton and had studios all over the city from Salford to Shudehill. Growing up in Stoke, Manchester was always the big city to me and I will never lose my love of the place,” he said.

“The skyline of Manchester is changing more and more every year and the city has the same buzz about it that first attracted me to Manhattan all those years ago. Sitting in new venues like Mackie Mayor that combine historic buildings with modern design you could believe you were in downtown Brooklyn.”

More info: gateway-gallery.co.uk