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For the start of 2001 the Royal West of England Academy was offering THREE SEPARATE EXHIBITIONS FOR A SINGLE ADMISSION. The Sharples and Winterstoke Galleries were showing work by MARTYN BREWSTER, whose work is lively, bright and compensates beautifully for the dark and cold January days. Martyn Brewster described his work and influences as:

"My primary concern has always been with painting. I have never ceased to be fascinated and enthralled by the tactile and evocative qualities of paint, oil paint especially. Early on, I developed a particular interest in colour and abstraction which is the key to my work, coupled with a lyrical and poetic response to both Nature and the medium.

I have always loved the related activities of drawing and printmaking. The drawings represent a more direct response to nature and all are done outside, in front of the motif. It is a challenge to deal with light and shade, space and atmosphere, and to find new compositions amongst such an endless multitude of forms. The prints are the opposite, and allow for a complete absorption in colour and abstraction free from any directly associated references. Drawing influences printmaking, which affects painting and so on, each practice constantly enriching and extending the other, and inspiring new work."

In the Stancomb-Wills and Methuen Gallery was the SIX ACADEMICIANS exhibition. This year the artist members exhibiting were Gerald Cains, Denys Delhanty, Kate Delhanty, Jennifer Harris, Stuart Jennings and John Stops. All six artists are well respected regionally and have all regularly exhibited at the RWA for some years.

Finally in the Milner Gallery there was a chance to see some of the 'Selected but Not Hung' work from the 148th Autumn Exhibition in ENCORE. During each Autumn Exhibition there is always too much high quality work to place on the 5,000 square feet of wall space, therefore each year some work is categorised 'Selected but Not Hung' and cannot be shown. For 2001 the RWA decided to give some of these artists the acknowledgement their work deserved.

Education
Martyn Brewster gave a slide talk about his work at the RWA on Saturday 27th January.

Each of the Six Academicians was available at the RWA during the exhibition to talk about their work.