THE FIRST speaker at Keighley Art Club’s new season was David Barker who told us about his interest in painting, from student days to the artists he knew.

He also described the work he did for the National Trust repairing and restoring old clocks.

David is one of only eight accredited clock conservators in Britain and is a fellow of the British Horological Institute.

He has not painted since 1963, despite attending Wakefield Art School in the 1950s and being interested in fine arts. He instead chose to become a teacher.

In 1955 David studied with Brian Guy, who painted David’s portrait. Brian taught David what he calls the tricky part of painting, namely where to start and when to finish.

Artists David encountered when at Leeds Art School included Brian Kerr, and Alan Davy who recently died. Alan impressed David with his action painting experiments.

David also recalled visiting artist Victor Pasmore who mingled as well as painted, Kenneth Armitage, and Sir Terry Frost whose retrospective exhibition was displayed at Leeds Art Gallery until August.

Sir Terry painted large abstracts with representational shapes. Having painted in Yorkshire in the late 1950s, he returned to Cornwall via America.

David brought his own painting Monument which Alan Davy had encouraged him to look at in a fresh way by turning the canvas all ways up before deciding which way to continue.

In the 1950s Helen Capp initiated the first West Riding Annual Art Exhibition in Wakefield. David Barker met Yorkshire landscape artist Peter Brook, whose personal logo was to add a self-portrait with a dog to his works. Some of these are in Skipton and on calendars.

Peter’s sense of humour appeared in the titles he added to the pictures, and A Better View appears alongside this column, showing his headless portrait in landscape.

Peter often painted with rags and rollers as well as brushes, creating paintings of farmhouses and mills near to his native Brighouse.

Other artists mentioned by David were Fred Lawson, who drew ink illustrations for Dalesman magazine in the Castle Bolton area, and William Manners, who mostly painted the Lake District.

David met LS Lowry at an exhibition in Bradford in 1964, which Mr Busby had sponsored.

David knew Jo Pighills, and after he refurbished o’clock he found at a chicken run in Riddlesden, Jo painted scenes on its dial. John Pighills now has the clock, which became a treasured possession of his mother Mary.

David’s art branched into his love of grandfather clocks, making sound frets and wheels as well as carrying out repairs. He has a maintenance contract with York Civic Trust. He owes his interest to watching his father tinkering with the clock when he was very young.

Cliffe Castle Museum’s art exhibition by Keighley Art Club with Bingley Art Society will run from September 26 to December 13.

It is our second exhibition of 2015 and we welcome the chance to present different styles and abilities.

We are also represented in Keighley Library from September to November and we have ongoing displays at the Picture House cinema in North Street. Call 01535 669914 in the mornings with enquiries.