Artist Pete McKee '˜blown away' as over 8,000 fans visit his latest exhibition

Shefield artist Pete McKee was blown away by the response to his show at Magna

McKee’s two-day exhibition, titled 6 Weeks to Eternity, was a homage to school holidays of days gone by and featured a replica of his childhood house, a series of arcade games and even a full-size helter skelter which squeezed, just, under the Magna roof.

McKee - whose last exhibition, Joy of Sheff, attracted around 3,000 people - created 30 original paintings for the exhibition, and fans sent in over 500 of their own snapshots and memories of bygone holidays which were featured in the show - alongside a replica of McKee’s childhood bedroom and a display of childhood scabs (also replicas, he assures), complete with descriptions of the type of childhood accident which produced them.

“I wanted a show that would bring the joy out in people,” McKee said.

“I wanted a show where people could reminisce about days gone by when we were younger and, more importantly, I wanted people to have a great time.

“But the response has completely blown me away.”

McKee, who grew up in Batemoor, began painting full-time in 2004 and has drawn a weekly cartoon for the Sheffield Telegraph since the early 1990s.

Pete McKee built a seaside town - complete with Helter Skelter - and his old Sheffield estate to host his latest two-day art exhibition celebrating the school summer holidays.

Visitor Daniel Platts, aged 26, said: “I loved it.

“There’s just something unmistakably Sheffield about Pete’s work, and that’s the beauty of it. He’s obviously a very talented artist, but he just ‘gets’ Sheffielders, too, because he’s one of us.

“Everyone can see a bit of themselves in most of these paintings, and it was nice to go back to my own childhood for an afternoon and remember how things used to be.”