TIM Leeson’s Beach Huts exhibition is running at Cafe Sola, Blackhall Yard, Kendal, and features paintings that mark the 10th anniversary of his mother’s death.

Jennefer Elaine Leeson was a well-known musician in the Barrow area where she taught piano and also played with the acclaimed Dorian Players, a group of medieval style musicians.

Tim says the paintings are symbolic of life with her and life without her.

“My life has had many difficult phases,” explains Tim.

“I served time in the army with the Royal Engineers. I have also had to deal with severe mental health problems, but I have never encountered anything as ‘tough’ as losing my mother.

“The Beach Hut paintings translate my feelings of love, despair, isolation and joy. They are an abstract representation of my feelings towards my mother and what I perceived hers were towards me. “Sometimes people find it difficult to say what they really want to say.”

“The Beach Huts are symbolic of fun. I learnt to swim on holiday with my mum. I also remember canal barge holidays as a child and learning how to fish on the banks of the River Trent and ponds in Barrow. I also remember and cherish searching ‘rock pools’ over at Walney. I would try and catch small fish and crabs with my net.

The Kendal-based artist believes that beach huts are also a place of refuge, at times providing respite from the hustle and bustle and monotony of everyday life.

“The style of these paintings are my attempt to paint through the eyes of a child. They are naive, beautiful but unerring paintings. Form, and the way it ‘undulates’ with content, is more important than technical ability for this show and I hope the work does my mother’s memory credit.”