Art exhibition captures sea, shoreline and the Rye Harbour area

Kent-based artist Elaine Almond is offering a solo exhibition at the Red Door Alchemist Gallery in Rye from Wednesday, August 17-Monday, August 29 (open 10am–5pm, closed Tuesdays).
Elaine AlmondElaine Almond
Elaine Almond

Her third visit to the Red Door Gallery comes this time during Rye Jazz Festival. Waves of Change is an exhibition of paintings of sea, shoreline and the Rye Harbour area, together with small collectables on the theme and some small abstract work.

“Stopped from doing art as a teenager, it was always in my mind. Then in 2007 I was finally diagnosed with a chronic autoimmune disease Lupus, felt too exhausted to work, and a year later I took early retirement from the NHS and began treatment.

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“What do you do to cope, to lift your spirits and keep a positive attitude much needed in the moment?

“Two things occurred to me back in 2008, prayer of course and learning to paint! I took myself off on a beginners’ weekend, something I had thought of for years since art was always an interest, and I kept painting.

“I lay down in the middle a few times, made a mess, thought I would never get the hang of composition, colours and techniques etc. What I found instead was that the act of painting gave me mental space to process events in my life, energy where I didn’t have any and huge enjoyment.

“So I have continued to paint, undertaking further in-depth courses in oils and abstract art with the wonderful Caroline Hulse and others. In 2017 I was shortlisted in the National Open Art Competition and then encouraged to exhibit at national art fairs and elsewhere around the south-east. Art has helped me with pastoral work (mental space/energy) and other demands of everyday life (relaxation) too, but it can also be frustrating on a bad day when nothing works!

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“My practice has grown as I grow and experiment – inks and twigs in 2021! – and express myself through art so that I now run a small group experimenting with expressive forms of art locally and also offer individual tuition. As a former psychotherapist, I see art as one means of self-expression and emotional connection, and in the light of my own experience, am interested in how ideas and feelings translate onto the canvas and how this affects the individual.

“It's amazing what someone new to art can produce at any time in their life if they allow themselves the freedom. I love colour having grown up in a rather grey London and later worked in Peru, loving the lively colourful culture – one way to lose a British stiff upper lip of course and culturally very rich, with artwork dating back 2000 years. My last visit to the northern Andes, where I worked for a time, was in 2015.

“Abstract work is also fun and challenging. It needs me in the work and outcomes cannot be predicted so since finishing this series of seascapes, I have been working on abstracted landscapes using collage from plein air sketches as a base to give the feeling of being outdoors, rather than a replica image. I love the fun of twigs and ink work too – minimalist but something very exciting about them."

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