IT is a creative skill which harks back to biblical texts.
But now an exhibition celebrating the lifetime’s work of an internationally-renowned calligrapher is set to be unveiled.
The works of 92-year-old calligrapher Tom Fleming, which he began producing in the 1930s, will go on display at Sunderland University’s Design Centre Gallery on Monday.
Called A Life in Letters, the exhibition is part of a wider project across the region and includes Tom’s drawings from the Second World War, pencil sketches of Lynemouth Colliery in Northumberland, where he worked as a mining surveyor from the 1950s to 1979, work from more recent years and his unusual lettering on shells and stones.
Tom’s work is represented in the collections of the Queen, King Harald V of Norway, Trinity House in Newcastle, US First Lady Rosalynn Carter, as well as local authorities across the country.
Course leader in calligraphy at the university, Dr Manny Ling, who is himself is an internationally-recognised calligrapher and a member of the Society of the Northumberland Scribes group, has organised the exhibition on campus, in collaboration with curator Roger Wollen.
Dr Ling said: “Tom Fleming has been one of the North East’s leading calligraphers for more than 40 years and has also played a major part in promoting both the practice and understanding of calligraphy through his teaching and through the Northumbrian Scribes, of which he was a founding member, former chairman and president.
“He’s certainly been an inspiration to me. He has such an eclectic body of work that we felt he should have a retrospective exhibition.”
He added: “It’s fantastic that the university has been chosen as a venue to showcase Tom’s exhibition due to our international reputation as a centre of excellence in calligraphy research.
“There are many historical connections to the traditional lettering technique, the oldest Latin version of the Bible – the Codex Amiantinus was written at this very site on the banks of the Wear.”
After attending schools between Edinburgh and Glasgow, Tom Fleming started work in 1935 at United Collieries in Armadale, West Lothian.
He progressed from a job as a dispatch clerk into the drawing office shortly after starting work, and set out on a career as a mining surveyor combining his professional duties with calligraphy.
He joined the Royal Army Medical Corps in 1940 and began a seven-year stint during the Second World War in the Middle East, North Africa and from Normandy to Berlin, and his work for his commanding officer, who drew on his lettering and cartography skills, included producing maps and adding names to the simple crosses that marked the resting places of many of his comrades.
A Life in Letters will also be shown at locations in Bamburgh, Berwick and Holy Island later this year.
The exhibition will run until March 22.
Tom Fleming has been one of the North East’s leading calligraphers for more than 40 years
