TO introduce its 2006 programme of exhibitions, Art Matters Gallery in Tenby steps aside from its usual practice of showing an artist's new work to produce an exhibition of paintings by the late T. Leonard Evans.
Leonard Evans was born in Ceredigion in 1926 and saw active service in Western Europe before demob and subsequent training as an artist and architect.
He practised as project architect for the local authority in his home county for the next 26 years, and painted throughout his life. He painted on his travels in Britain and abroad, sketching outdoors, working in all media, and received recognition for his contribution to art and architecture from a number of quarters. Although elected a member of the Watercolour Society of Wales (Cardiff), he remained unaffiliated to any particular artistic group.
In 1981 he took early retirement to give his further artistic ambitions full opportunity. Several one- man shows followed, Leonard Evans's work was accepted at the Royal Academy Summer Exhibitions and purchases made of his work for public collections at the National Library of Wales and at Cardiff University.
The exhibition in Tenby is the first showing of T. Leonard Evans's paintings for a decade. Work from the 1960s, '70s and '80s is represented in 37 paintings: an eclectic mix of landscape, portrait and fantasy, undoubtedly influenced by such as Kyffin Williams, John Piper, Russell Flint and Graham Sutherland, but standing as a strong body of work of a talented and independent artist. Many of the landscapes include architectural reference to still-standing farms and houses, or half-forgotten castles and mansions; portraits include real and allegorical figures; and semi- abstract work combines elements, as in collage, to represent musical or literary themes in magical, imaginative and engaging pieces.
The exhibition opens at Art Matters Gallery in Tenby tomorrow (Saturday) and continues until Friday, March 31. Open daily from 10 am to 5 pm (closed Wednesday and Sunday).