THE wild and vibrant work of an abstract painter will be celebrated at an exhibition in Lyme Regis.

The Town Mill will display the work of Anthony Frost at the Malthouse Gallery.

Opening on September 9 and running until September 26, this exhibition, full of pure abstraction, simple and powerful punches of colour, is the latest in a special series curated for the Malthouse by Deborah Wood of The Art Room.

Frost lives and works in Cornwall, where he was born in 1951.

As art historian Maggie Giraud said: “As one of the six children of Terry and Kathleen Frost, with an artist son himself, Anthony is part of that wonderful Cornish collection of artistic dynasties rooted in the area.

"Despite the absence of overt referencing to the surrounding landscape, common to his contemporaries, the man cannot be taken out of his context.”

Frost studied at Cardiff College of Art and has been exhibiting professionally since 1975. His work can be found in a number of significant corporate collections and major public galleries worldwide.

The work is vibrant and wild, full of colour, part painting - part collage. He is inspired by loud, raw, post-punk music and motivated by the desire to create subconsciously and automatically. A collection of found materials such as pumice, hessian, sailcloth and rubber are applied to canvas to produce completely abstract arrangements.

He works fast and free, producing unpredictable and random images that he describes as honest, real and truthful.

“When starting a painting,” Frost explains, “ I don't know the problems I will have to deal with until the painting is well on the go and the secret (for me) is to keep the whole thing on the boil right to the end, so the finished work has that feeling of excitement, speed and danger.

"I try to take all my paintings to the edge – it is voyage of discovery, full of surprises, problems, accidents (happy accidents that I use to my advantage) and decisions, which all have to be resolved in some crazy way. I attempt with colour and marks to create my own space, rhythms, weight, speed and volume.”

*Anthony Frost exhibition, Malthouse Gallery, Town Mill Gallery, open daily from 10.30am to 4.30pm. Admission is free and more information can be found at townmillarts.co.uk and theartroomtopsham.co.uk