Pre-Christmas art show from Arundel's Andy Waite

Andy said: “As well as working with around five or six galleries across the country, we put on two open-house shows a year, the first as part of the well-established Arundel Gallery Trail and the second in the run-up to Christmas.

“This Christmas exhibition doesn’t attract quite so many people as we enjoy during the trail in August as it’s a more individual event, without the benefit of dozens of other artists and Arundel Festival being in full swing.

“However, we strive to make it an equally special experience for visitors and this year I have a variety of work on offer. The show is called Amber and Myrrh, a title my partner Willow came up with while reflecting on the new body of work and it feels very appropriate for the colours and scents of the season which always weave themselves into my paintings.”

Amber and Myrrh is on over the weekends December 2,3 and 4 and December 9, 10 and 11, 11am-5pm daily, 54 Tarrant Street, Arundel, BN18 9DN; more details via the website www.andywaite.net.

“I am still primarily a landscape painter although that label seems to fall short of what actually goes on. Although inspired by our beautiful surroundings in Sussex and beyond, I find that more and more it’s the held experience of nature that predominates my work. Imagination and intuition play a big part in what arrives on the canvas, allowing whatever comes along in terms of shape, colour and expression without becoming tied down to specific geography while still referencing all that nature shows us.

“A less well-known aspect of my work involves figures and faces. Over the years there have always been the occasional series of paintings concerning the human form and what goes on in the head and the heart. After a break of a few years I’ve made another collection of my icon paintings which in shape resemble classical panels with rounded tops made from sections of salvaged scaffold boards, yet the figures depicted are based in more recent history.

"This time around there are a variety of characters derived from Victorian and Edwardian photographs, but like the landscapes, they take their own path and and may well have strayed from their origins.

“So I have 15 faces looking at me, four new large-scale landscapes and several small jewel like pieces, mounted and under glass with limed oak frames. I love to work on a large scale but these little pieces often serve as a starting point for bigger things.

“I feel the landscape will always be my comfort and a place I return to for all that it gives us and that we ignore at our peril; I want my work to be an ongoing celebration of all we revere about where we exist. We very much hope you will come and join us for a drink and a chat about all things art and otherwise.”

Andy has got two books currently available: “Eternity and the Breath of Sparrows is a collection of landscape images with a few of my poems while Starlit and Garlanded is a collection of poems spanning the last eight years with accompanying monochrome photographs.”