The Norman Cornish Trail
Norman Cornish Trail Norman Cornish (1919-2014) was an acclaimed painter born in Spennymoor. Though perhaps best known for his ‘mining scenes’ depicting the work and socialising of the miners of the Durham coalfield, Cornish depicted a wide array of subjects and the breadth and quality of his work make the oft-attributed label “pitman painter” something of a misnomer. True, Cornish worked as a miner for most of his working life, and the lives of miners and their families form the backdrop of many of his most well-known works. But the term “pitman painter” suggests that Cornish’s reputation rests on the novelty of his being a working miner who painted, rather than on the brilliance of the art itself. Like many great artists, his inspiration was drawn from the world he inhabited. As Cornish once said: “Spennymoor has all that a painter needs to depict humanity.” And it is perhaps his ability to depict the humanity of his subjects that distinguishes his work from some of those wit