THERE are more than 3,000 publicly-owned oil paintings in 22 collections across West Yorkshire.

Yet an alarming four in five of them are not on view.

Hidden away in storerooms, they rarely come out on display – and some suffer the fate of never being shown.

While curators in general make strenuous efforts to rotate their displays, many paintings cannot be seen, usually because there are insufficient funds and space to show them.

Very few galleries have created a photographic record for themselves, let alone an illustrated catalogue for the public.

A wealth of paintings by lesser-known local artists as well as internationally-renowned painters remains out of sight, hidden in dusty back rooms and corridors.

Fred Hohler, a regular gallery visitor, grew frustrated at the lack of public access and decided to do something about it.

He formed the Public Catalogue Foundation, which has given itself the daunting task of leaving no canvas unchecked in a bid to list and photograph every oil painting in public ownership.

A series of illustrated books is gradually being published county by county and 17 have been brought out so far, the latest covering West Yorkshire.

It is a massive job – with an estimated 150,000 works to list in galleries and public buildings across the United Kingdom.

Art detectives working for the foundation have found paintings not just in museums, but also in council buildings, universities, hospitals, police stations and fire stations.

The foundation lives on a subsistence budget, receiving no public finance, and one volume tends to help pay for the next.

Artist David Hockney has given financial support for the West Yorkshire volume and so has Kirklees Council.

Volunteers have left no corner uncovered in hunting down paintings. Seven of those illustrated are at the tiny Colne Valley Museum in Golcar.

The book includes 3,000 paintings of every oil painting in public hands in the region and is intended to be a valuable reference for art-lovers and students.

Around 700 oil paintings are shown from the Kirklees collection, which has a focus on 19th and 20th century art that reflects the local district.

It may surprise many that a significant number of paintings – more than 100 – is held at the National Coal Mining Museum at Overton, near Flockton.

Many of the works at the museum are by amateur artists and provide an invaluable social record of an industry and community that has all but disappeared.

Andy Ellis, director of the Public Catalogue Foundation, said: “It has proved really interesting to find how many items there are in West Yorkshire.”

The entire nation should have been covered by 2012 in 75 volumes.

The project will later go online, allowing the public free access to the works they own.

When all the books are published there will be a record of every oil painting in public ownership in the country and a colour photograph of almost all.

Oil Paintings in Public Ownership: West Yorkshire (ISBN 1 904931 27 8) has more than 400 pages and 40 full page colour reproductions and is available in softback at £20 and hardback at £35.

This catalogue excludes the city of Leeds, which forms an earlier catalogue, West Yorkshire: Leeds.