A VISUAL and musical journey following the course of two contrasting walls has been unveiled.

Wall to Wall by North-East artist and musician Martin Matthews has opened at the World Heritage Visitor Centre in Durham City.

The exhibition is themed geographically and set between the Northumbrian coastline and Carlingford, County Down, Northern Ireland.

The journey starts in Lindisfarne, cradle of England’s Celtic Christianity, then loosely follows the route of Emperor Hadrian’s Roman wall and the Mourne Wall - built between 1904 and 1922 by the Belfast Water Commissioners to enclose the water catchment for the newly built Silent Valley reservoir in the Mourne Mountains.

Mr Matthews’ work features well- known and some more unfamiliar scenes from the many walks made over the years with old school friends.

The paintings in this exhibition are of mixed media, featuring acrylic, oil and industrial paints.

Each titled piece is linked to a piece of music, composed, arranged and in the main, played and recorded by Mr Matthew, with the help of his long-time musical collaborator Sean Taylor.

Mr Matthews, who hails from Lanchester, near Durham City, said: “Musically, the parallels between the traditional music of Northumberland, the Scottish Borders and Ireland are obvious and it is wonderful to celebrate those similarities rather than declare their differences.”