Paintings and Drawings by James Coates

James (Jim) Coates (1907-1984) was born in the small East Yorkshire town of Howden and spent his childhood, along with his two brothers and three sisters in a small terraced house in Hailgate, Howden. Throughout WW2 he served in the middle east with the Royal Army Ordnance Corps, during which time he became a dedicated amateur artist. Some of his watercolour paintings are shown in gallery 3a, and illustrate rural scenes in and around the town of Howden throughout the 1950s. As he travelled around the area, chiefly by bicycle, Jim always carried a sketchbook in his saddlebag and some of his sketches can be viewed in gallery 3b.