I will be having an exhibition of ten selected works at Kelly Ross’s Child Okeford gallery The Art Stable in the lovely Dorset village of Child Okeford.
Having lived and worked in Child Okeford for over 30 years, I am particularly delighted to be having this exhibition at The Art Stable, having known Kelly since she opened the gallery in 2006.
Coinciding as it does with my 70th birthday, and being situated in the heart of this lovely area, The Art Stable is an especially appropriate venue for this, my first gallery show outside central London for over 30 years.
All but one of the works in the show were created in my attic studio just a few hundred yards away, and it features in most of them, along with the objects and people familiar to me. I became so accustomed to this very special space, with its warped elm floor and quirky beamed walls that it developed into a kind of visual shorthand for me: a language I could manipulate instinctively and expressively for the compositions that evolved in it. After work it was wonderful to be able to walk out on to the nearby Hambledon Hill, whose high perspectives and ancient landscape acted as a perfect counterpoint to the slightly claustrophobic intensity of the attic.
The Art Stable specialises in contemporary and 20th Century British paintings, prints and ceramics, presenting eight exhibitions a year of established and emerging artists. There are two spaces, next door to each other. The gallery is situated in the courtyard of an organic farm next door to a farm shop and a cafe with a view towards the spectacular iron age hill fort, Hambledon Hill.
The exhibition runs from 5 February to 5 March 2022. During exhibitions the gallery is open from Thursday to Saturday 10am – 3pm.