As a young artist John Ross was told to paint about what he knew.

Raised in an agricultural part of Leicestershire, surrounded by farm animals and lurchers, it therefore seemed natural that pigs - and lurchers -would become important to his work.

Several decades later and John, now living in Huddersfield and a director of The Artworks in Halifax, an independent art school with its own gallery, is about to launch a major retrospective entitled, of course, The Pig In Art.

This tongue-in-cheek title is only to be expected of an artist who is known by his students, family, friends and colleagues as something of a joker. Humour, says John, is also an important factor in his work.

The exhibition traces his development from graphic artist and cartoonist to painter and teacher, showing the influences of his agricultural background and love of both the Yorkshire landscape and that of Southern Spain, a part of Europe which John and his wife Annie enjoy visiting. It is being shown in The Artworks’ 1830 Gallery at Shaw Lodge Mills (opposite The Shay) and is, says John, as much a shop window for the school as it is a reflection of his personal achievements.

A former student of The Royal College of Art, John produced satirical cartoons for many of the national broadsheets before moving North to teach and has exhibited widely around the world. From 1980 until 2003 he was on the staff of the School of Art and Design at Leeds Metropolitan University, where he retired as Head of Graphic Art and Design.

The Artworks was founded in 2008 after John, who lives in Beaumont Park, was invited to set up an arts facility in the mill complex – with full funding for seven years. However, when the mill was subsequently sold shortly afterwards he and fellow director Peter Stanyer decided that they’d stick with the project.

As John says: “We had to fund it in all sorts of ways, we built it on a shoe string. But it is an everyman art school, open to any age, creed or ability, and we’ve done it our way.”

Since the Artworks opened its gallery it has housed a number of exhibitions by high profile artists, including one of John’s old pals, Ralph Steadman (Quentin Blake is promised for spring 2017). But this will be John’s first solo exhibition in his own gallery and it promises an eclectic mix of works, invariably tinged with his sense of humour.

“A big part of the exhibition,” he says, “is landscape and the human condition. But I’m very fond of comedy. When I first went to art school I thought art had to be po-faced – until I went to a Rene Magritte show and fell about. I’m a graphic artist not a fine artist and I have a mind like a junk shop and whatever subject puts itself under my nose I look at.”

The exhibition, which is running from November 8 until December 20 (open Thursday to Sunday from noon until 3pm), will also give viewers the chance to see what The Artworks has to offer.

“We cater for everybody from primary school to PhD level,” says John.

Check out www.theartworks.org.uk for details of the exhibition and classes.