Local Artist’s Success In Major National Art Exhibition

Published on: 22 Oct, 2019
Updated on: 22 Oct, 2019

‘Black Desert in Morocco’ by Andrew Curtis.

A work by local artist Andrew Curtis has been selected to appear alongside paintings by some of Britain’s leading artists in this year’s Royal Institute of Oil Painters (ROI) Annual Exhibition at The Mall Galleries in London.

Black Desert was inspired by Andrew’s travels and has been selected from 1,600 entries.

The exhibition will feature over 300 new and recent paintings, and aims to showcase the work of many of the UK’s most exciting young artists alongside work of more established names.

The only national art society devoted exclusively to oil painting, the ROI’s Annual Exhibition gives visitors the opportunity to see the many and varied ways in which artists use oil paint today, from a traditional approach, to more innovative uses of material, style and content.

The exhibition will run from Wednesday, November 27 to Sunday, December 8. For details, visit https://www.mallgalleries.org.uk/whats-on/exhibitions/royal-institute-oil-painters-annual-exhibition-2019.

Andrew Curtis, who lives in Dapdune Road in Guildford, studied Fine Art at the Ruskin School of Fine Art and has exhibited in many UK galleries and with the New English Art Club, the Royal Society of British Artists, the Royal West of England Academy and the Royal Institute of Oil Painters – when he was the winner of the Winsor and Newton Award..

Guildford artist Andrew Curtis.

Of his work, Andrew says “It is rooted in observation, but when attempting to capture what Alexander Pope called the “genius of the place”, mere topographical verisimilitude is not enough. Abstraction is a means by which one can produce work that gets underneath the surface of a subject.

“If I have time I will sit down with an easel and paint a conventional oil study. I also always travel with a sketchbook in which I record what I see and make notes of my impressions of a place. Back in the studio, work begins in “translating” the gathered impressions.

“The outcome of each work is never clear until it is finished, as I believe the best work has to surprise one and paintings evolve naturally over time.”

To find out more about Andrew’s work, visit www.andrewcurtis.com and https://www.facebook.com/andrewcurtisart/.