Artworks honour WW2 female steelworkers
Ron LawsonA painting and a statue maquette celebrating women who worked in a town's steelworks during World War Two are being shown for the first time.
The artworks are part of the Queens of Steel project, which will culminate in the creation of a permanent sculpture in Consett.
Sunderland artist Ron Lawson made the pieces, which are being exhibited in the city's 24NE Gallery.
Kevin Earley, who is among the volunteers behind the idea, said work continued to secure funding for the project, with hopes a full size statue could be finished and installed next year.
Consett Steelworks opened in 1840. It reached its peak during World War Two when about 12,000 people were employed there but closed in 1980.
SuppliedEarley said volunteers had their eyes "firmly set" on a space for the statue next to Consett's new hospital which is on the former steelworks site.
"It is only a matter of yards from the Consett to Sunderland cycle track which, of course, was once the railway line that took steel to the shipyards of Sunderland," Earley said.
Lawson, who also created Molly, a sculpture on the Wear banks honouring the women who worked in Sunderland's shipyards during the War, said the new painting was a "continuation of the story".
"There's an absolute connection with the narrative of Molly," he said.
The exhibition runs until 31 October.
