Description

In the Yorkshire Dales town of Richmond, rumour once travelled faster than the market bell. For a brief and scandalous moment, the old pub known as The Fleece was reportedly renamed The Tanya’s Charms after a local girl found unexpected fame in a lads’ magazine.

Order was soon restored, curtains twitched, pearls clutched and the respectable market town returned to normal.

But this painting imagines Tanya many years later. Older now, slower perhaps, but still turning a few heads as she walks by.

Part social history, part myth-making, Tanya’s Charms explores how small towns remember women — particularly those who dared to disrupt expectations, however briefly. The piece balances humour with tenderness, imagining Tanya not as a scandal, but as someone who quietly carried stories, attention, longing and resilience through the decades.

Painted in Sue Dewhurst’s distinctive narrative style, the work combines rich architectural detail with understated Northern wit and affection for overlooked lives.

The accompanying fictional backstory expands Tanya’s life beyond gossip and reputation, transforming her into a beloved figure of the tavern — confidante, listener, wise woman and keeper of secrets.

Perfect for collectors drawn to contemporary British narrative art, Yorkshire social history and character-led storytelling with humour and heart.

Measures including shadow frame – 19.5 cms x 19.5 cms x 5.5 cms

Sue Dewhurst’s Owd Lasses series celebrates the invisible women of Northern Britain through humour, memory and layered storytelling. Combining painterly observation with fictional backstories rooted in working-class culture, the series invites viewers to look beyond appearances and reconsider the women often dismissed as background characters in everyday life.

Click here for more in the series Owd Lasses