New contemporary art gallery opens on North Tyneside coast

A colourful new art gallery showcasing original paintings from a local artist has opened in Cullercoats.

Artist Joanne Wishart and her husband Ross Wishart from North Shields have followed their dream of opening an art gallery together and St Georges Road is the perfect setting.

On Friday evening’s launch event Joanne & Ross were welcomed to the community by over 100 guests including local businesses and Joanne’s art collectors. Refreshments were donated by the Cullercoats Brewery to raise funds for the local RLNI.

Joanne has been painting colourful coastal scenes of the North East coast for nearly 15 years and in 2009 won a female entrepreneur award for the North East England’s “Best Creative Business”.

Ross joined the business in 2008 to act as her business partner and agent and since then the business has grown form strength to strength.

Joanne’s work is available as original paintings, deckchair artworks, limited edition prints, greetings cards and gifts.

Her greetings cards and gifts are supplied to gift shops and galleries nationwide and she has licenced images to Dunoon Ceramics to make beautiful fine bone China mugs.

Her former studio was at the Mushroom Works in the Ouseburn but it was always their dream to open a gallery at the coast.

The new space on St Georges Road has had a major refurbishment with a spacious gallery space featuring real wood floors and stunning fireplace, setting the scene for her paintings.

Behind the scenes in the former pet shop a room for packing and distribution of trade and website orders with a further studio room at the back for Joanne to create new work.

Joanne said: “ I hope that the gallery is somewhere that people feel welcome to view my work and leave with a smile on their face”.

“We have been overwhelmed with support from other local businesses and the community, it is such a friendly place. Cullercoats is a great location for us, it is up and coming with great coffee shops, restaurants, and indie businesses and of course the beach!

“Cullercoats has a rich heritage as an artist colony, with the likes of Winslow Homer and Robert Jobling in the 1800’s. We hope to revive the creative scene and that people will visit the gallery and enjoy a day out in the area, there is hard work ahead but we are excited by this new venture and can’t wait to get started!”

Opening hours Wed – Sat 10am – 5pm with (10am -7pm Friday)