Kimmeridge - Between the Ledges

20th September to 3rd October

Rita Brown is a Dorset landscape painter who creates contemporary abstract paintings; her work is layered and scratched through, creating an archeology of the painted surface.   Her latest collection, currently showing at Sou’-Sou’-West Arts Gallery Shop, features 25 artworks, all with a focus on fossils and the Jurassic coast.  

Rita enjoys observing fossils being naturally unveiled: she returns to areas after a period of time has passed to see the changes in pattern and colour between the ledges that the sea has revealed since her last visit. She says: “I think it must be the intricate structures and the earthy colours of the pigments that attract me”.  As an artist, Rita is fascinated by her subject matter of  things from the past being rediscovered, by their coming back to life after millions of years.  

Geology and palaeontology have been a recurring theme throughout Rita’s career, and, inspired by the Etches Collection, her own collection of Jurassic Coast specimens and her visits to Kimmeridge, Eype and Charmouth, Rita found herself hugely motivated and inspired to produce the richly coloured and textured array of paintings in this exhibition.

Image: 'Fossil Bed 23' by Rita Brown