If you like curves, you’ll love John Coatsworth’s paintings. DAVID WHETSTONE talks to the man who puts the wobble into landscapes and also makes pop stars happy

ARTIST John Coatsworth is realising one of his greatest ambitions – to have a one-man exhibition in his home city of Newcastle.

The exhibition, John Coatsworth: Painting the Toon, is proving to be a hugely popular attraction at the Discovery Museum – so popular, in fact, that John keeps having to fill the gaps which appear on the walls following a sale.

But there’s another reason for him to be feeling on top of the world. Accompanying the exhibition is a sumptuously illustrated book, also called Painting the Toon, which features lots of his paintings and his life story.

It is in the book that he reveals his long-held desire to exhibit his work on home soil.

The book is lovely but the exhibition is something else ... a colourful portrayal of many of John’s favourite North East landscapes rendered in his now familiar and distinctive style.

He calls it “curvation” and he says it came about partly by accident and partly out of a desire to be different: “There were so many people doing traditional-style paintings.”

The exhibition, which shows some of his highly-accomplished, pre-curvation work, demonstrates that John can do “traditional-style” with the best of them.

But he says: “If you can find a style of your own, that’s like the golden chalice.

“It’s about 15 years ago that I came across this way of painting and since then there have been hordes of people copying it. I suppose you’ve got to feel flattered.”

A typical John Coatsworth landscape – and they are highly- coveted – bathes the supposedly gritty North East in a warm glow of pink and orange.

His night skies are often a Mediterranean blue with twinkling stars and his buildings – and not just the Tyne Bridge and The Sage Gateshead – have pregnant curves and appear to sway to an inner music.

As he says in the book, his friends jokingly dubbed this style “bendy”. He prefers curvation, which sounds more formal and befitting of that golden chalice.

But the accidental nature of its arrival is symbolised by a sketch of St James’ Park in a display cabinet in the exhibition.