Important art worksare secured for Rye

Top of the shopping list was an important wood engraving by one of the most celebrated of the Modern British artists, Paul Nash. Promenade 1 was created in 1920 of the sea wall in Dymchurch, near Rye, where the artist lived for a while.

Printmaker, Norman Ackroyd RA has work in the Tate and the British Museum and exhibited in Rye last year.

The atmospheric monochrome print ofseabirds-circling the craggy cliffs of Muckle Flugga, in the Shetland Islands, has been bought by the Friends for £800.

The Friends’ most recent purchase, for £150, is of a much loved view of Rye; View of Rye from the River, a watercolour, by Harold Wood (b. 1918) dated 1957.

The artist is known to have lived and worked for a while in Rye, painting local scenes in both oil and watercolour.

At the beginning of 2013, the Friends were pleased to acquire, for £325, Hill Town in Spain - a landscape oil by local artist Diana Low (1911-1975).

Andrew Ashton, a trustee of the Rye Art Gallery, said: “The trustees of the gallery are very grateful to the Friends of Rye Art Gallery for the funding of these purchases.

“It is hoped that all these pictures might be shown together at the gallery this year.”