THE latest exhibition at The Gasgoine Gallery features the work of former Leeds Polytechnic head of Fine Art Willy Tirr.

A Tribute to Willy Tirr - exciting abstract watercolours - is at the gallery in Bolling Road, Ben Rhydding, from November 15 to December 9.

Tirr was born in Germany in 1915 and fled the Nazis in 1938, settling in England at the age of 23.

After internment in England and Australia, he joined the army and ended the war in the Intelligence Corps.

In the 1950s and 60s he taught at the Leeds College of Art and painted in a small studio he had built at the side of his house in Leeds.

By 1970 he began teaching as a lecturer and later became head of fine art at Leeds Polytechnic (now Leeds Metropolitan University).

He explored and experimented with a

variety of media and techniques, including large shaped canvases in oil and acrylic.

However, it is his substantial watercolours which made his important contribution to contemporary landscape painting.

These were inspired by visits to the

dramatic harsh scenery of Yorkshire.

His work is dominated by the elements with distinctive views glimpsed through explosive vapours and torrents of colour.

Using the basic visual components, shapes, lines, colours, textures and composition, he put them together in particular works to express his own emotional experiences.

His works are in the collections at Bradford University, Leeds City Art Gallery, Leeds University, Wollongon University in Australia, Dean Clough at Halifax and the Bezalel National Gallery of Israel.

The exhibition at the gallery is open from Wednesday to Saturday between 10am and 5pm and at other times by appointment. Ring (01943) 600725 for details.