A few years ago collectors of James Lindsey Bird’s artwork and members of his family got in touch with me to discuss their interest in promoting an exhibition of his work at Darlington Library Art Gallery. With their support in lending works for exhibition, we were able to share an exhibition of 88 of his works from Saturday 4 July 2026 – Tuesday 29 September 2026. Chris Lloyd published a fantastic feature in the Northern Echo, covering the exhibition, and the brilliant website James Lindsey Bird :: About Darlington helped us to promote this exhibition, which featured works from different decades of the artists life, including a fantastic oil painting of his grandfather, painted when the artist was just sixteen years old.
I wanted to take this opportunity to thank everyone involved in the exhibition, particularly those who loaned works for exhibition and were so generous with their time and in sharing their insights into James Lindsey Bird’s practice. I’d also like to thank C’ART – Art Transport Ltd who collected and returned some of the works that were loaned for exhibition and provided an excellent service in my experience. Last, but not least, I’d like to thank all who visited the exhibition, particularly those who left comments on it and/or completed questionnaires to let us know what they thought.
Comments on our exhibitions programme are helpful, and I’ve shown all those made on this exhibition below:
Wonderful to see this collection of works by J.L. Bird. Thankyou.- A really interesting exhibition, but perhaps the captions describing the pictures could have been better positioned, as its not easy to see which they refer to.
- Its so energizing to see the artwork here in this space. Thank you Darlington Library.
- Wonderful exhibition. No matter the medium used JL Bird excels. Thank you for the opportunity to view his work.
- Truly a wonderful painter.
- Yes a wonderful exhibition! Luck to have met the artist’s son. Will be back!
- Good memories – a proper exhibition.
- A fantastic exhibition. Remember meeting him at ‘Gallery 2’. Love Pusskiss (The artist’s cat – CD Manager’s note in brackets)
- Really super to see these! Wonderful work. Hope to see further exhibitions here.
- Fabulous exhibition – will be coming multiple times. Great to see such amazing art in Darlington. Please show more like this!
- Ditto! Excellent work. Really like the exhibition and I will have to return.
- Great exhibition! Love the pen and ink drawings. Thanks.
- An impressive collection – very evocative paintings of Darlington I know well. Beautiful abundant work.
- My old art master!!! An honour and a privilege to have known and loved this show – I owe him a huge debt of gratitude. A FINE exhibition of some lovely work.
- Hugely appreciate Darlington Library exhibiting this art work. Very impressive.
- What a lovely place to look at the wonderful art. So glad to have seen it. Please lets have more!!
- Tremendous work! ‘River Wear with Shipping’ (a watercolour by JLB from Darlington Borough Art Collection – CD Manager’s note in brackets) is from the Wear Bridge I think. Saw it many times. V. nostalgic!
- Wonderful life’s work collection of this dedicated teacher and artist. I hope we will see a similar exhibition in here in years to come by the next generation of artists.
- Can the Library stretch to doing a postcard?
- An interesting exhibition – not come across him before – Especially like the Pen & Ink and Pencil sketches.
- I love the art exhibitions in the library. Especially Mr. Bird’s exhibition, excellent.
- Amazing pictures – I was a pupil of his in the 1950 – 60’s. Nice to get a different viewpoint.
- An inspiration to me from 1956 – 63. I followed in his footsteps to become an Art teacher for 34 years. A brilliant man.
- Great to see these pictures in a proper exhibition!
- Had heard of him, but great to see his art.
- What a fabulous exhibition. And what a talent. Really loved it.
- Interesting mix of objects – very talented.
- One of the most satisfying ”shows” in recent years!
- Great to see my old art teachers’ art, very grateful to him.
- I’d never heard of him but it is an impressive body of work. I wish that I had been taught by him!!
- Wonderful collection from a talented artist.
- Absolutely superb!
- A varied and interesting exhibition.
- An excellent exhibition by a ‘Darlington artist’ who deserves to be better known?
- An amazing range of work. Very enjoyable.
- Another talented ”local” emerges with an exhibition. Very rich colours. Commendable use of the different methods.
- Absolutely wonderful exhibition by a top rate artist who has so much ability as an artist!!
- Such wide ranging subject matter rather says it all about this superb artist. What a privilege to visit this outstanding exhibition. Thanks to all contributing to putting together this amazing body of artwork.
- It’s so lovely to see places I recognise, scenes from a bygone age, Stanhope Road, Grammar School!! Very enjoyable.
- Thank you for showing us another Darlington resident at work. ”Locomotion No. 1 at Bank Top”! I’d heard of it, but scarcely remember it. Ah, the past ….. Coming next? The yearly ‘Young Artists of Darlington’??
- Amazing exhibition – could observe for hours.
- Glorious!
- Really enjoyed seeing this varied work of James Bird.
- A super show of the craft of drawing & painting as we were taught, as a 1970’s student.
- A wonderful exhibition. Very varied subjects.
- Loving the views depicting a Darlington of the past!
- Really good stuff, terrific.
- Beautiful exhibition. Always very interesting to see work crossing an artists’ lifetime.
- This exhibition really shows the talent of such a renowned local artist. The setting here in the Library is such a wonderful space. Darlington Borough Council will be proud of the Library.
- Always wonderful hands. Inspiring. Faces great. Queen Mum captured just right. Teeth are very difficult to be realistic. But these are nice.
- Wonderful British art – very evocative of the area. I loved the poodle & cupboard, and many more. The cat’s face – superb. Thankyou!
- Lovely exhibition of a talented Artist. Wonderful works using different mediums.
- An amazing artist – when the exhibition first opened I was very privileged to speak to the family, James Lindsey Birds son, grand daughter + other members of the family. Wonderful exhibition – Great to get much background information from the family and son + to have relayed to myself some of the symbolism in the pictures.
- Brilliant display, v talented artist. Recognisable scenes, various ‘medium’ makes the exhibition more interesting. You were probably with my father in law Morris Hancock (deceased) at Q of E.
- Local life & all life beautifully captured. V. enjoyable exhibition. Thank you!
- ”Good stuff by Birdy!”
- Great display thanks.
- Wonderful exhibition, love his work.
- Wonderful.
- Amazing place love it.
- Keep up the good work.
- Amazing, very beautiful!
- Lovely mixture of Bird’s paintings. Good landscapes, still life and portraits. Well worth the visit.
- A great exhibition of a life-times work by a local artist. Such a range whilst teaching. Interesting works. Well worth visiting.
- Amazing – Very, very interesting!
- Superb – Great to see JLB’s work in one place: thank you.
- Amazing, versatile artist, seriously undervalued in my humble opinion!
- Absolutely amazing exhibition. We have visited at least 4 or 5 times and do not lose interest in such wonderful pictures.
- Needs a new book of his work – catalogue raisonné even. Wonderful painter!!
- So peaceful wandering around, enjoying all the different scenes. Thoroughly enjoyed it all 🙂.
- ‘Dicky’ Bird was my old art master. I wasn’t much good at painting but he taught me to appreciate paintings, and that has been a lifetime gift. So glad to have visited. He was a lovely gentle man.
Of visitors who completed questionnaires during the exhibition run 100% selected Strongly Agree from the following menu of responses to the statement I enjoyed my visit to Darlington Library Art Gallery during the exhibition: Strongly Agree, Tend to Agree, Neither, Tend to Disagree, Strongly Disagree. From reading all the comments I noted that visitors to the exhibition appreciated Bird’s talent in variety of techniques, the life and variety within his work, his character and the positive impact he made on many lives, through his love of art, work as an art teacher, and at Gallery 2.
We hope if you pop in you’ll find the exhibitions interesting. Ten exhibitions will open here in 2026/27 and eleven exhibitions opened in 2025/26, each is different from the last and we ask artists and groups to share work which is suitable for all ages. Entry to the Art Gallery is free and its open during standard Darlington Library opening hours, which are shown here Opening hours – Darlington Libraries.
So thank you, to all who suggested bringing a new exhibition of Crook born artist James Lindsey Bird’s work to Darlington Library Art Gallery, we hope you’ll pop in and explore the current and forthcoming exhibitions if you get the chance, and welcome your comments on the programme if you can do so.
