THE 2010 York Early Music Festival artist in residence, Alfred Huckett, will hold an exhibition at the National Centre for Early Music, Walmgate, York, from December 3.

The London artist was invited by the Kentmere House Gallery to paint at rehearsals and concerts during the festival run from July 9 to 17 in the sixth such collaboration between Ann Petherick’s gallery and the York festival.

“Alfred is himself a musician and was therefore familiar with much of the music and knew many of the performers at this summer’s festival,” says Ann.

Alfred was participating in the festival for a second time, having undertaken a previous residency in 1995. “The first one resulted in some stunning work, including a series of paintings of the Five Sisters window in the Minster, painted throughout a Purcell concert, with the colour of the glass darkening as the light faded outside,” recalls Ann.

He has spent the past six years sailing around the coast of northern Spain, leading to his showing very little work recently, but having returned home to live in north London, he took up Ann’s invitation for the festival residency.

As a singer in an amateur early music choir in London, Alfred was delighted to have the chance to attend so many concerts. “It’s not a bit like work – I had a great time!” he says. “This year’s programme had some very exciting ensembles; I particularly liked The Sixteen and I Fagiolini.

“I also enjoyed recording the atmosphere and details of the festival’s many special venues, such as the Nave and Chapter House of York Minster, the Merchant Adventurers’ Hall and St Michael le Belfrey.”

The first collaboration between the festival and Kentmere House Gallery took place in 1992. “I was concerned at the demise of York Festival four years earlier and had the idea of adding another art form to the world-renowned York Early Music Festival, thus re-creating something of York Festival,” says Ann.

This is merely one of many innovative ideas dreamed up by Ann, who refers to them as her “out-of-gallery experiences”. Among these ventures have been Jake Attree’s exhibition in York Minster in 2006; a show at Newby Hall to coincide with the opening of its sculpture park; an exhibition in York Theatre Royal; and a display of works by Yorkshire artists in the Leeds head office of Yorkshire Forward.

Alfred Huckett trained initially at Eastbourne School of Art and later specialised in theatre design at the Central School in London. While he now concentrates on painting and drawing, he gained enormously from his time as a scenic artist for the Birmingham Repertory Theatre, where he enjoyed the challenge of working on a larger scale.

He has since developed his work in a variety of media, including watercolour, oils, acrylic, etching and screen-printing, and he has plans to re-explore lithography too.

In 1994, he was asked to paint several views of The King’s Manor in York, and one of the works was bought by the committee of the Senior Common Room and now hangs in the refectory.

Come December, the results of his latest union with York – painted at a festival with the apt theme of Musical Marriages – can be enjoyed in a month-long show.