STAINED glass, pencil drawings and watercolours by Ilkley-based artist Jonathan Cooke and his son Thomas will be featured in an exhibition at Skipton’s Mill Bridge Gallery later this month.

‘Travellers’ Tales’ will focus on journeys of all kinds, real and imagined, through time and in landscape.

Jonathan’s quirky stained glass ‘narrative’ panels and also watercolour landscapes are complemented by his son, Thomas’s images of a fictional world steeped in the aesthetic of the Northern European late Middle Ages.

Jonathan’s stained glass art is both traditional and highly original, employing a wide repertoire of glass painting techniques from the conventional to the experimental.

These result in idiosyncratic narrative pieces that are usually small scale, often intricately detailed panels, which address the human condition.

Fascinated by stained glass since childhood, Jonathan served a four-year traditional apprenticeship at the York Glaziers Trust, where he worked on the restoration of York Minster’s world-famous medieval glass following the fire in 1984.

It took four years and £2.25m to repair the damage caused by a lightning bolt which set fire to the minster’s south transept - destroying its roof.

Jonathan has been in private practice since 1987 and has taught glass painting for 30 years throughout the UK, as well as in Norway and the USA.

Son, Thomas Cooke is an autistic art historian and philosopher with eight years of teaching experience.

He has always been interested in the history of art and architecture, particularly the aesthetics and culture of late medieval Northern Europe.

As a child, he began creating a paracosm – an imaginary world – as a coping mechanism.

He now shares this in his highly detailed landscape and architectural pencil drawings of ‘The Principality’, a central part of that world.

As well as the stained glass, drawings and paintings there will be a display featuring the processes involved in creating stained glass, plus a presentation with discussion.

The Travellers’ Tales exhibition will run from Thursday, September 8 until October 1.

The gallery is open from Thursdays to Saturdays, 11am to 4pm, and other times by appointment.

For more details of Jonathan Cooke’s work, visit: www.jonathancooke.com

Mill Bridge Gallery, located in a canal-side building dating back to 1675 and said to be the oldest dwelling in Skipton, exhibits the work of more than 20 talented local artists.

More details on Mill Bridge Gallery at: http:/ www.millbridgegallery.co.uk/