Pre-Christmas exhibition from Arundel artist Andy Waite

Andy said: “Putting on a Christmas exhibition at home has become quite a tradition for us, and after the heady and somewhat hectic days of Arundel Gallery Trail back in August, this will be an opportunity for visitors to see work in a more peaceful and reflective way without the crowds that accompany that event.

“If you haven’t visited before, what you can expect is a collection of uplifting and joyful expressionist, contemporary landscape paintings in oil, set within our Georgian home in central Arundel. Paintings are presented in a way that allows the viewer to imagine them in their own environment, with accompanying and carefully curated treasures, that although ornamental, also inform and set off the paintings. We are sometimes asked whether these are also for sale but have to inform people that it’s just the artwork!

“The exhibition takes place over three long weekends. November 28, 29 and 30; December 5, 6 and 7; and finally December 12, 13 and 14. We are open daily from 11am-4.30pm at 54 Tarrant Street, Arundel BN18 9DN. If you can’t make the dates, please feel free to arrange a better time by getting in touch: [email protected]; 07570 807954; www.andywaite.net.”

Andy added: “The paintings that I’ve selected for this show will include both new and older pieces, some small and some larger together with limited edition prints and oil sketches. The work itself continues my ongoing exploration of landscape as an abstract way of expressing emotion, while allowing the imagination to conjure what might be memories of something half forgotten; coded messages waiting to be unlocked.

“With my work you really have to allow your inner being to be stirred and connected with, and the outer day to day flurry of our lives to take a back seat, and when people take the time to be with it, they often find they are rewarded with seeing and sensing more than that which appears at first glance.

“I have long used colour to invoke these senses and my relationship with it is profound and it harks back to childhood and a time when I was always drawn to anything colourful that sparked the senses; maybe a toy kaleidoscope or a set of glass mosaic tiles laid out on a grid to make your own patterns, my mother’s love of home making and the colours she used, the 60s flower power era and then the discovery of artists like Matisse and Gauguin, followed by a love for Japanese woodblock prints while later finding a deep connection with the work of Howard Hodgkin.

“There has been much in between those days and beyond that continues to infuse and excite the heart and mind and always an openness to let colour into my world in whatever form it may arrive, and it remains the abiding light that has led me to how my practice has evolved today.

“I hope you will come along and take a glimpse into this painted world that I continue to inhabit. Please take some time out and feel free to bring friends and relatives and come and share a drink and a bite to eat by the fireside.”