Chris Hedley-Dent comes back to London after his successful exhibition at Piers Feetham in 2019. His latest exhibition entitled ‘Patterned’ explores Indian and West country themes and will be on show at Gallery 475. One of the main inspirations for this body of work was a trip to Rajasthan in 2019. During the Covid lockdown, he created a series of twenty-two fairly abstract collages based on his experiences there. He says:

 “India was overwhelming in many ways, but I was particularly impressed by the variety of pattern and extreme colour contrast in the architecture, textiles, and landscape.

  “A highlight was visiting a textile cooperative near Jaipur that used traditional block printing methods. I hung in my studio, textiles that I had bought there. I wanted to get away from easel painting and brushes, hence the decision to experiment with collage, stencil, and printmaking techniques. Indeed in many of the works, I have used some traditional Indian blocks. I worked mainly on the floor. As the series developed, I became particularly interested in incorporating framing devices, which is so much part of Indian miniature painting.”

He has subsequently developed some of these ideas into larger paintings that incorporate specific memories of places and events and the atmosphere of Indian raga music. He continues to explore the territory between abstraction and figuration.

He is also showing a selection of direct paintings of Cornwall and Dartmoor and some more imaginative treatments of the landscape and coast.

As a poet, Chris explores in parallel many of the themes he paints about and his recently published selected poems, ‘A Point of Love’ will be on sale at the Exhibition.

This attractive one-man show continues to reflect his very varied interests and approaches. 

Chris Hedley-Dent has lived in Devon since 1995. He has exhibited widely over his career in London and Devon and recent exhibitions include The ‘Untitled Art Fair, London (2016), The South West Academy (2017),The Chagford Inn, Chagford (2018), Piers Feetham (2019)