The work of eleven award-winning artists in the 2017 The Artist Open Art Exhibition will be exhibited in The Barn gallery at Patchings Art Centre in Nottinghmashire from October 13 to November 18, 2018.

Tom Hughes, Bohuslav Barlow, Kris Mercer, Peter Kuhfeld, Andrew Hird, Barry Freeman, Darcey Murphey, Clare Bowen, Kelv Holtom, Paul Talbot-Greaves and Terry Ward were all winners of The Artist Exhibition Awards last year, and were invited to take part in this year's exhibition.

Tom Hughes, whose oil painting Studio Interior with iMac and Air Filter (see below) was also awarded The Artist Purchase Prize, said of his work: ‘I love the intriguing corners of small cluttered rooms and wanted to capture my studio space on a single canvas, showing it from floor to ceiling. I struggle judging very wide scenes like this with just the naked eye so I bought a large convex mirror, the sort you normally see in roadside hedges opposite tight driveways. I placed it on a tripod and painted the curved, distorted reflection. This gave a unique and otherwise impossible view of a small space and allowed me to include myself in the painting. It’s a very personal piece and I feel it shows me at my most comfortable, doing what I love.

‘The initial drawing part of the painting was all done with a brush (no charcoal) and seemed to happen naturally. I love those early stages, working around the canvas judging angles and scale until the jigsaw puzzle of all those intermingled shapes matches up. I then went in with opaque accurate colour and blocked in the main areas before refining smaller areas. I try and pay very close attention to values and colour temperature when I paint and feel I managed to capture the cool greys and purple tints on the shadow areas on my white walls. The hardest part, tonally, was making the computer screen and lamp look bright enough compared to everything else in the room. Tricky!.’

The Barn Gallery is open daily from 9.30am to 5.30pm.

Visit the Patchings Art Centre website for more details of how to visit.