Knaresborough woman Claire Baxter has been appointed the official artist ahead of the Great Knaresborough Bed Race 2024.
Knaresborough born and bred, Claire has already produced two stunning paintings of the historic race.
She owns galleries on Castlegate and on the High Street in Pateley Bridge. The paintings can be viewed at the galleries and orders can be placed there of via her website.
Claire said:
“Bed Race is such a special event, and having experienced it live for so many years I have been inspired to capture its quirkiness on canvas.
“For many, the river crossing is the highlight of the day. I have rendered that and the larger Time and Tide painting incorporates the famous Knaresborough Viaduct.
“We have so much that is famous – bridges, the river, the hills, the Gorge, cobbled streets, parkland – and it all comes together on Bed Race Day.”
The two paintings are titled ‘Time and Tide’ and ‘Bed Time’. The originals retail at £1,295 and £595 respectively, with medium, small and postcards also available.
25% of the revenue from sales will go to local Bed Race charities.
This year’s Great Knaresborough Bed Race will be held on Saturday 8th June, continuing a span of races going back to 1966.
It is in part a gruelling athletic challenge between 90 teams alongside a spectacle of decorated beds and runners who take part in the Parade through the town.
Knaresborough Lions, a charity group comprised by volunteers, organise the event.
Martin Brock, the Lions’ committee chairman, commented that the club is delighted to have the support of such a talented artist as Claire Baxter.
He said:
“We have never before had an Official Bed Race Artist.
“But in Claire we have a fantastic talent who reflects well the glorious spirit of the event."
The paintings capture not only the race but also the unmistakable ‘Yorkshireness’ of the people who take part.”
Claire's father, Ron Johnson, was a local policeman in the 1980s.
She moved away to study fashion design and began a career in teaching, but said she was always more interested in fine art and opened her first gallery in Pateley Bridge five years ago.
The Knaresborough gallery started in April 2023.
Asked to define her unique style, she described it as a mixture of “illustration and realism.”
Further details are available at www.bedrace.co.uk
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