THE appearance and sense of movement plays a fundamental role within many branches of the arts, whether it is the internal rhythms of a poem, the tempo of a musical composition, the activity of a painting or the grace of a dancer. Well schooled in two of these disciplines is Olivia Argent, whose new exhibition of retrospective and current art works opens at Tenby Museum and Art Gallery on May 24. Olivia, who moved to Tenby with her Pembrokeshire-born architect husband over 30 years ago, has had a long association with dance. Her mother used to take her from the earliest age of two-and-a-half to their local London theatre, Sadlers Wells, to watch ballet. When she was seven- years-old, Olivia started ballet lessons. From there she auditioned for the Royal Ballet School at Richmond (Billy Elliot...) and at the age of 10 was accepted as a student where she recalls "you ate, slept and lived ballet." She remained with the Royal Ballet as a student from the age of 10-17. After briefly attending Rosella Hightowers school in France, she made a decision to return to Britain, realising that she would never make a Prima Ballerina. Following a series of jobs, she decided at the age of 20 to go to Art School. Olivia spent a year at the Central and a further three years at Chelsea Art School where she specialised in graphics. She has been painting since graduating from Chelsea in 1968. After leaving art college, Olivia underwent a teacher-training course where she hoped to combine her dancing knowledge, artistic talents and practical teaching skills. This led to setting up dance classes, firstly for children at the Further Education Centre and later for adults. She continues to run classes. Her love of dance and art are easily witnessed in the pictures of dancers that will be on show at the museum. She is a woman who readily admits to 'wearing two hats', but states that she uses her experience of dance at all levels, saying that it gives her the discipline to go daily to her Tenby studio to paint. As well as the discipline of the dance, Pembrokeshire also acts as an important and inspiring point of reference. Her other inspirations include poetry, the landscape and the people of Tenby. She creates pictures that concentrate on what the gallery owner of Les Arts Verts in the Lot district of France described as 'the line of life'. The paintings reveal fluidity of movement and energy, and are often figurative set within a context of landscape and cultural artefacts. Thus there are pictures of tango dancers, dancers in India; a close-up of an extended Indian dancer's arm which at first glance appears to be a landscape; a Tenby mother cradling her child; and often incorporated within the picture there are fragments of poetry and calligraphy, and other forms of the lines of life. The exhibition opens tomorrow (Saturday) and runs until June 22 and the museum is open seven days a week, 10 am-5 pm (last admission 4.30 pm). There will be an opportunity to talk to Olivia about her work at a 'Meet the Artist' day on Tuesday, May 27, 12 noon - 4 pm.
