Local artist Geoff Butterworth wins Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours Exhibition award

Geoff Butterworth, pictured with one of his paintings at his gallery in the Rochdale Exchange

Local artist Geoff Butterworth has won an award in the Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours Exhibition at the Mall Galleries in London.

His painting, ‘A Day Like Any Other’ depicts, in Geoff’s words, “the mundane life of the times in the Lancashire border towns in the Pennines.”

Geoff said he was “delighted” to be awarded the accolade, The Neil Meacher RI Watercolour Award.

The Royal Institute’s exhibition is the largest exhibition of contemporary water-based media paintings in the world. 

Geoff began painting at a young age, before returning to it wholeheartedly at the age of 22 following a motorbike accident.

It wasn’t until the following Christmas that Geoff was introduced to the medium he is most famously associated with – watercolour.

By September 1980 Geoff had sold several paintings and became self-employed. His first exhibition was held at Rivington, set up by a friend who lived at Stubley Hall in Littleborough and knew the gallery’s owners.

Geoff’s current exhibition in the Rochdale Exchange Shopping Centre is presently closed due to the national pandemic.