A new exhibition will be on display from Thursday 8 to Wednesday 21 May featuring the work of a well-known local Exmouth artist at A la Ronde, the National Trust property near Exmouth.

‘Times and Seasons’ by John Onley is a series of paintings based on landscape and townscape studies at home and abroad worked in pastel, acrylics and mixed medias. He tries to simplify natural forms, sometimes to the point of abstraction, to emphasise the patterns and shapes of the landscape, and to achieve vibrant colour combinations. On location he makes ink sketches, supplemented by photographs, and then works up the material into imaginative compositions back in the studio. The paintings explore the colours and rhythms of different seasons of the year and the changing light and atmosphere at various times of the day.

John came to Devon in 1967 to teach English and Theatre studies at Rolle College, Exmouth. His growing interest in the visual arts led to a year’s course at Cardiff College of Art, leading to a post-graduate diploma in art education. In 1980 he began to work freelance, painting and print-making, teaching watercolour classes and writing exhibition reviews for the Guardian and the Western Morning News.

Over the years John has held many solo and group exhibitions in the southwest, and at Dinan, in Brittany, where he was invited to do a short residency at the studio donated to the city by the well-known Breton artist, Yvonne Jean-Haffen. His work has been hung in South West Academy exhibitions and at the Royal West of England Academy in Bristol.

Admission to the exhibition in the stable and tea-room is free during normal opening times.