A BRADFORD-born artist who met The Beatles during his time in 1960s London is delighted to be showcasing some of his work in his home city.

Doug Binder is displaying pieces for LIFE, at Bradford Cathedral, including paintings of horses, Roman ruins and a self-portrait painted when he was 19.

The free exhibition follows a glamorous life in art after the 74-year-old swapped Bradford for London during the swinging sixties.

Mr Binder met friends Dudley Edwards and David Vaughan at Bradford College of Art when he studied commercial design there between 1957 and 1961. He then studied at the Royal College of Art in the Capital.

The trio reunited in London where they became a design group known as BEV, specialising in psychedelic murals and paintings.

They were active in the city between 1965 and 1967, when they received a lot of attention from the press. They also attracted hip clientele including members of The Beatles and London boutiques such as Dandie Fashions.

The trio painted cars including a 1960 Buick convertible which featured on the cover of The Kinks' Sunny Afternoon EP. The artists also completed artwork for the photographer David Bailey.

They also met Paul McCartney, who commissioned Binder to paint the music legend's Knight piano.

BEV parted company in 1967 and Binder displayed his work in the United States during the 1970s, including exhibitions in Chicago, Minneapolis and closer to home at Bradford's Cartwright Hall.

Mr Binder, who was born in Undercliffe, returned to Thornton in the 1980s where he renewed his interest in oil painting and has painted life models over the last 20 years.

He now works as the painter in residence at the Dean Clough galleries in Halifax, where he also holds a weekly life model class.

He said: "The pieces in the exhibition are fairly recent paintings.

"It's going to a mini-retrospective. I have gone full circle being back in Bradford showing my work.

"Bradford is always there for me and always will be. It is great to put my work on show at the Cathedral.

"It's a decorative show, featuring paintings of colour. But my recent pieces are more dour, I use a lot of green now.

"The exhibition does not concentrate on me being a life painter but it does feature a few of my life pictures who are partly clothed.

"To me, painting a model is even better than painting a landscape."

Despite his time rubbing shoulders with the era's biggest stars, Mr Binder does not look back on the 1960s with much fondness.

"The 1960s were a period of my life that I think were regrettable. I did not really enjoy it. I was glad to get out of it," he said.

"Work was successful, I did do designs that The Beatles used. We met a lot of the glitterati of that time.

"I lived in London for a long time where I did a lot of abstract work.

"I escaped the 1960s and did a very different type of painting in the 1970s.

"This was in the days when you could just ring up and speak to The Beatles. I remember going round to John Lennon's house for a meeting with him and Paul McCartney.

"Paul and John were great. We used to have dinner with them. This was in their early days, they had not yet released the Magical Mystery Tour LP.

"They were nice people. They even played some of the music to us that they composed in their bathroom.

"Paul commissioned me to paint his Knight piano.

"I used to bounce the actress Sadie Frost on my knee when she was a baby, she was David Vaughan's daughter."

Art lovers can meet Mr Binder tomorrow at a talk held at the Cathedral from 6.30pm.

Chairman of Artspace at Bradford Cathedral Maggie Peel said: "We are delighted to have this exciting exhibition that will enable visitors to appreciate the range and depth of Doug's artistic talents, whether they know and love them of old or are new to his work."

The exhibition runs until Friday, August 14.

The Cathedral is open Monday to Saturday, between 9am and 4.30pm, and Sundays from 11.45am to 4pm.