Art page July 17

Rachel Howard: At Sea

Jerwood Gallery, Rock-A-Nore Road, Hastings, Saturday, July 18, to Sunday, October 4

HAVING already welcomed new underwater paintings by illustrator Quentin Blake, the Festival Of The Sea at Jerwood Gallery is continuing with another unique exhibition.

Abstract painter Rachel Howard has spent the last two years creating new works with the Jerwood Gallery in mind. At Sea in part draws parallels between the seascape outside the gallery windows and Howard’s childhood home on the coast of County Durham.

“Having a permanent horizon every day to look at gives a wonderful reassurance in what can be at times a very uncertain world,” she says. “My show at the Jerwood explores both these aspects of certainty and uncertainty.”

Working on four or five pieces simultaneously, Howard applies colours, lets them rest and then disturbs them with turpentine, varnishes or successive layers of paint – a process she calls “unpicking the painting”.

She has also curated two rooms of works from the Jerwood Collection to go on display alongside her exhibition, Blake’s Life Under Water and Lowry By The Sea, which opened last month.

Open Tues to Sun and bank hols 11am to 5pm, tickets £8/£3.50, reductions for Hastings residents. Visit www.jerwoodgallery.org

Kenneth Rowntree: A Centenary Exhibition

De’Longhi Print Room, Pallant House Gallery, North Pallant, Chichester, Wednesday, July 22, to Sunday, October 18

PALLANT House hosts a touring centenary retrospective of one of Eric Ravilious and Edward Bawden’s contemporaries, Kenneth Rowntree.

Mainly working in oil and watercolour, Rowntree’s work depicted his surroundings, from the Essex countryside, Welsh hills and Sussex coastline in his home country and further abroad to the Australian outback and giant landscapes of the US.

This exhibition spans his works in oil, acrylic, watercolour and gouache between the 1930s and 1980s.

Open Tues to Sat 10am to 5pm (Thurs to 8pm), Sun 11am to 5pm, free. Visit pallant.org.uk