THE industrial heartland of Teesside is the inspiration for an exhibition at the Bianco Nero gallery in Stokesley.

Two local artists have taken the Corus site at Redcar as the basis for a series of works for the show Steel River.

Clare Money studied fine art at Edinburgh College of Art before returning to the North-East. She produces strongly architectural drawings and paintings that convey subtle light effects.

“I have always been fascinated by vast industrial spaces and buildings, and in the past have worked on projects around shipyards and docks,” she said.

She found the size and complexity of machinery at the Corus site, and the sheer scale of the place, awe inspiring.

She was also stuck by the apparent lack of human presence.

“I have tried to capture the sense that this immense plant is a separate entity, incessantly manufacturing and endlessly churning out steel oblivious to the outside world,” she said.

Photographer Anna Howell, of Stokesley, graduated in 2007 with a first-class honours degree from Cleveland College of Art and Design.

Recent projects have examined the urban/suburban environment.

For this exhibition, she focused on the juxtaposition of shapes and colours in the bleak landscape of the steel works.

“The images aim to capture the unified sense of the place: serenity and strength, calm and power, where colour extends from delicate monochrome tints to the powerful deep hues of this exceptional landscape,”

she said.

The exhibition runs until May 9.