'The pinnacle of nightclubbing': Claire Baxter captures six decades of Yorkshire subcultures in new series

To step inside a painting by Claire Baxter is to enter a world that feels instantly, warmly familiar.

Known across the region for her vibrant oil paintings depicting "Proper Yorkshire" and its folk, the fine artist has spent an 18-year career capturing the humour, quiet affection, and everyday rhythms of Northern life.

Now, six years after her work as the Official Artist for the Tour de Yorkshire, Baxter is releasing her most ambitious thematic project to date: Bygone Yorkshire.

Created over five intensive months in her studio, the new six-piece collection is a cultural time capsule, with each painting pairing a specific decade with a definitive music and fashion subculture, anchored in a real Yorkshire location that has changed or disappeared over time.

The series spans 1950s Teddy Boys in Saltaire and 1960s Mods on the Scarborough promenade through to Knaresborough, Harrogate, Whitby's Goth scene, and 1990s Leeds.

"In each decade, I looked at a popular music subculture and tied it directly into that location," Claire explains to the Yorkshire Evening Post. "It’s looking at lost generations and lost cultures that we celebrated when we were young, but also looking at places that have either been changed or no longer exist.

“It tells so many different stories through the dress, the music, and the stances of the characters."

Beyond pure nostalgia for those who lived through these eras first-hand, the collection taps directly into a growing cultural shift: Gen Z’s fascination with pre-digital life, vintage fashion, and the push toward "going analogue."

"Times have changed and moved on so quickly in 30 years with the introduction of technology," Claire explains. "People do start reminiscing about the time before smartphones and digital cameras, when you had to take your photos to get properly processed.

"The photos that exist from those nights out aren't glossy, amazing Instagram photos - they're weathered! You see kids walking around in AC/DC T-shirts frequently now. It becomes an iconic cult status. These bands were following other bands when they were younger, and that's how it morphs and changes.

“It's all part of that entire story."

The Pinnacle of Nightclubbing in Leeds

For Leeds local culture and nightlife aficionados, the centrepiece of that journey is Girl Power - a vibrant canvas that transports viewers back to the multi-tiered dancefloors of 1990s Leeds and the legendary former Majestyk nightclub during the height of Spice Girls mania.

"When I was thinking about the Spice Girls, which was a culmination of my pop thinking, I asked myself: where do I locate them?" Claire explains. "It had to be Majestyk. So many people went - for me, it was the absolute pinnacle of nightclubbing in Leeds.

“You used to queue all the way down the road just to get in."

For Claire, who drew on her own fashion degree background to research every historical detail down to the footwear, capturing the 90s era meant leaning into collective local memory.

"It was an absolute special occasion," Claire laughs. "Get on the train, straight out of the station, and into Majestyk because it was right opposite! You’d be planning the whole thing all week—making sure your outfit was classic Bay Trading, with overdone lip liner, and as many curtain haircuts on the lads as far as the eye could see."

A defining hallmark of Baxter’s signature style across all six subculture pieces - whether painting 70s Punks or 90s clubbers - is her choice never to paint facial features on her figures, leaving them faceless and viewed from behind.

"The minute you don't have the faces revealed, the characters lead you into the painting," Claire states. "I don't paint something that people have to work out. I want people to look at one of my paintings and go: 'That was me. I get it. I'm reading myself into that.'

“With all art, there has to be a personal connection."

The Bygone Yorkshire collection will make its public debut later this month. A private launch evening will take place at Claire’s Knaresborough gallery on September 17, followed by the official public exhibition opening from September 18 to 20.

Claire will be in the gallery throughout the opening weekend to discuss the original oil paintings, alongside a collection of signed, limited-edition prints available to pre-order.

But while Bygone Yorkshire debuts this month with its six flagship decade pieces, Baxter stresses that this is far from a one-off project. It marks the focal point of an ongoing, expansive body of work that spans the entire county.

"This is just the start of this collection - it will be added to over time," Baxter confirms. "This isn't just a new thing for me; I've been painting in this style for 18 years, but this is the first time I've released a collection that marries up like this.