The new exhibition combines monumental oil paintings, bronze sculpture and live music to celebrate the women who helped sustain Britain’s wartime industries.

The latest exhibition has gone on show at the city’s 24NE gallery and it’s shining a light on the forgotten women of Sunderland industry, as well as the wider North East.

Dr Ron Lawson stands in front of his oil painting prior to the unveiling of the new exhibition | Submitted

placeholder image — Dr Ron Lawson stands in front of his oil painting prior to the unveiling of the new exhibition | Submitted

Sunderland-based artist and sculptor Dr Ron Lawson, working professionally as STANSON, launched his latest exhibit, The Engaging Gaze, as part of the gallery’s Another View Exhibition.

The exhibit features three large-scale oil paintings depicting women working in the steelworks, shipyards and railways of North East England during the Second World War, alongside bronze sculpture and fine art prints.

Each painting, measuring 1.5 metres high, places its female subjects firmly at the centre of the composition, inviting viewers to encounter them not simply as figures from industrial history, but as individuals with strength, character and identity.

The original works have all been sold, but prints are available at the gallery | Submitted

The three works — Ruth, Mary and the Way Gang, and Molly and Dot — explore different aspects of women’s experiences in traditionally male-dominated industries.

Ruth depicts a steelworker taking a moment’s respite in the doorway of a foundry.

Mary and the Way Gang portrays a formidable railway worker carrying a sledgehammer across her shoulder, while Molly and Dot captures two Sunderland shipyard workers sharing a break high above the industrial workplace.

Together, the paintings trace the historic industrial connections between Consett’s steelworks, the region’s railway network and Sunderland’s shipyards.

For Dr Lawson, who is also known for creating the Molly sculpture at St Peter’s Riverside, the exhibition represents an important development in his artistic practice, combining his longstanding interest in industrial heritage with an increasingly expressive approach to figurative portraiture.

“I wanted these women to be more than historical representations of wartime workers,” he said. “They were individuals with their own personalities, experiences and identities, and I wanted that humanity to come through in the paintings.

“The gaze is particularly important. Rather than allowing us simply to observe these women as figures from the past, they look back at us. That changes the relationship between the viewer and the subject.”

A bronze bust also features in the exhibition | Submitted

“We often celebrate the industrial achievements of the North East through its buildings, machinery and engineering. I wanted to bring some of the people, particularly the women whose contributions have often been overlooked, back into that story.”

The exhibition has already attracted significant interest, with all three original oil paintings selling to private collectors before the public launch.

One collector purchased Mary and the Way Gang while the paint was still wet, repeatedly describing the work as ‘powerful’ as he stood before it.

A bronze portrait bust, developed through Ron’s expanding lost-wax casting practice, also features in the exhibition, demonstrating the relationship between his painting and sculpture.

Fine art prints of the paintings will be available through 24NE Gallery.

The exhibition launch also featured a live performance by Andy J Fraser and the Tunstallachia Upland Boys, with Ron himself swapping his paintbrushes for drumsticks.

The band performed songs connecting the stories of Ruth, Mary, Molly and Dot.