London Seen - Paintings by Piers Ottey - 26 March to 16 April

Feb. 9, 2011 - PRLog -- Piers Ottey returns to the gallery with a new series of paintings of London. Based on drawings and preliminary paintings on site these works show some familiar London landmarks as seen by this popular Sussex based artist.

James Stewart, gallery director says “In the past we have shown Sussex landscapes and his Swiss mountain scenes. In many ways these London paintings draw on the previous subjects, we see dramatic structures and well-known landscapes painted in the unique style we have come to expect from Piers Ottey”.

Art historian and critic Mary Rose Beaumont writes “Artists with a sense of humour are agile, deft and defy categorisation, which is wonderfully refreshing when the work is as challenging as is Piers Ottey’s.   He revels in his power to puzzle the viewer, both visually in the paintings and verbally in some of his titles.   He has a propensity to leave out important features in his landscapes whilst still titling them as if they were there, in other words the artist plays at being a conjuror.

The exhibition will include a number of large-scale paintings as well as smaller works and some drawings.

“Rotherhithe Thames” – oil on canvas – 176 x 92 cm

Piers Ottey:

Born in London, Piers trained at Chelsea School of Art in the 1970's and has been painting ever since. He moved to West Sussex in 1980 and set up The Mill Studio in 1994.

Painting mostly in oils, his subject matter has often been influenced by his travels to Greece, Spain, France and Denmark but he always returns to painting from the human form and local Sussex landscapes.

Pier's work has been exhibited in London, the provinces and abroad and can be found in private and corporate as well as public collections around the world. The paintings are very personal with a mischievous quality, bordering on the subversive.

Later in 2011 Piers Ottey’s paintings will be exhibited in an exhibition at the Medici Gallery, Cork Street, London.

There is also the issue of the 'code' of colours often seen around the edge of his canvasses. These form a diary; a record of all the colours used to make the image and in the order they were made and used. For Piers, the edges of the picture are important, so is the geometry between the edge and the centre.

The square is his most common format; primary red and blue form his initial drawing.
"Surface quality should be special" he says and all viewers should feel free to feel the surface of the work.

In June 2007 Piers won the University of Bath painting prize, and has had work acquired by both Worthing and Portsmouth Museums.

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A contemporary art gallery with a rolling programme of eight exhibitions pa showing work by both local and international artists, well known and not so well known. Works on show include paintings, sculpture, ceramics, textiles and original prints.