Oxmarket Contemporary exhibition

Between Root and Sky is the Oxmarket Contemporary exhibition in Chichester from Caron Buckingham-Rhyder who lives in Cocking, near Midhurst.

It runs from August 4-16.

Caron explains: “This exhibition celebrates the tree, its importance in our lives and how it affects us when they are loved and lost.

“Trees are often associated with memory, experience and time. Often our strongest memories are associated with the outdoors and nature. This is a culmination of four years of work, ranging from paintings, drawings and sculptures.

“I am hoping people will be inspired the way I have when experiencing the extraordinary resilience and transformation a tree goes through to survive and often to support life. I have had a shared exhibition ten years ago but I am very excited as this is my first solo show here at the Oxmarket.

“I have a background in architecture which I gave up about 24 years ago to run an outdoor education company but the need to create wasn’t ever very far away and in 2015 I started to take it all a bit more seriously!

“Architecture does influence fairly heavily with lots of rhythm, structure and I continuously play about with different materials. Drawing remains at the heart of my practice though and most of the work is paintings for this exhibition.

“I am based in beautiful West Sussex, which is a constant source of incredible subject matter. I have exhibited throughout the UK and I have work in international collections.

“At the start of my career I studied with Piers Ottey and, in 2024, graduated with distinction from the diploma in art and contemporary craft at West Dean College. In the past ten years my work has been selected or shortlisted for exhibitions and awards including the Royal Academy of Arts Summer Exhibition, Jackson's Art Prize, AppArt, National Open Art, The Sussex Contemporary and recently Auto_Amor One Day in May, amongst others. More details of these can be found on my website www.caronbuckingham-rhyder.co.uk.”