An exhibition of paintings that celebrate the day-to-day and often mundane sights of inner city Bradford will open in Bradford College next week.

A Vague Frontier features more than 30 paintings by college lecturer and artist Martin Hearne - all of which have been inspired by his journeys too and from work.

Although the subjects of his paintings, including building sites, hairdressers' shops and car washes, might not jump out as obvious inspiration for art, Mr Hearne said they truly reflect the Bradford he sees every day.

The exhibition opens on Monday at the recently re-furbished Dye House Gallery in the college's Lister Building, and will last until mid-May.

Having studied art at St Martin's College, Mr Hearne spent much of his career in the medium of ceramics, which he teaches at Bradford College. But recently he revisited painting, and has created the pieces that make up the exhibition is just three years.

While many artists focus on Bradford's grander buildings, or the beauty of areas like Haworth and Saltaire, the paintings in this exhibition are based on scenes of places like Legrams Lane, Thornton Road and Allerton.

And almost every painting features Bradfordians going about their every day life.

Mr Hearne was eager to make sure Bradford's diverse population was fully represented - fish and chip shops rub shoulders with Asian clothing stores and burkas are seen alongside tracksuits.

Although the paintings are based on actual buildings and roads, and are instantly recognisable, they are actually "collages" of the city.

Mr Hearne, who has taught at the college for 25 years, lived in Heaton until he moved to Wilsden two years ago, but still travels the familiar routes that have inspired his work.

Some of the pieces went on display in an exhibition at Forster's Bistro last year, and he is eager that the paintings are shown in the city centre.

He said: "They are all paintings of scenes I see every day coming to work. A lot of the shops are ones I see, but have been put in other places.

"They are mostly from the car, sometimes I'll see a scene and go back and photograph it later so I can paint it.

"I'm not trying to pick the 'celebrity buildings,' it is what people see every day."

Central to some of the paintings are the often colourful clothing work by the city's Asian community.

Mr Hearne said: "I love the colour of this city, some have got the clothing stores you see where they have dummies wearing very colourful outfits in the windows. It is a great way of injecting colour into the art. I love the framework offered by shop fronts.

"I wanted this exhibition to be representative of what I see all the time in Bradford, and it is not what you see in any other city. It is a very multicultural place.

"When people see these paintings I want them to think 'this looks very familiar' even if it is just the plastic sheeting on a building.

"It is important I have people on these paintings, otherwise you get a bit of a distance from what the city really is."

The exhibition will be the biggest yet of his paintings, and he said he was excited to be exhibiting in the college's gallery, only a few metres from some of the scenes he has re-created.

He said his work has been inspired by Edward Hopper, an American realist painter, especially his sense of light, as well as John Sloane and the Ashcan school of art.

Explaining the title of the exhibition, Mr Hearne said: "The title comes from a comment by Baudelaire talking about Goya’s work when he refers to ‘a vague frontier’ between the fantastical ideas of the etchings and the visceral nature of what is depicted.

"The vague frontier between all painting is about the line between the inner life and the expression of it. This recent work explores ideas of how people perceive Bradford and it attempts to neutralise value judgements in as far they can be, since judgements are social constructs. Art is a site where people can be represented neutrally.”

The exhibition starts on Monday, and the gallery is open from 11am to 4pm. There will be a private view next Thursday from 4.30 until 7.30pm, and a special Saturday opening on April 18 from 11am until 2pm, with an artist’s talk at 12.30pm.