A NEW exhibition at Sladers Yard in West Bay brings together three artists whose work responds to tidal water.

It will be running from Saturday, January 26 to Sunday, March 10.

Paintings by Anthony Garratt, wood carvings by David West and furniture by Petter Southall all show complementary but different responses to the theme Tidal with each one 'thrilling and utterly original'.

Anthony Garratt is an experimental painter of landscape. His paintings of Dartmoor and the Devon coast in this exhibition show his love of running and tidal water within the landscape. Since he and his young family moved to Dartmoor, Anthony’s engagement with this wild landscape and the visible traces of its long history speaks in

these dynamic paintings.

Often working outdoors, he is at the mercy of the elements which are liable to wash away his paint and radically change his painting, however this is part of the story of the work for him.

As Mary Myers put it in Country Life, ‘Anthony Garratt has taken en plein air painting to a new extreme. Happiest when the weather is wild, he regards the unpredictable effects of the elements as central to his work.’

Increasingly he is exploring the human, both political and emotional, within the landscapes he paints, alongside the nature of the paint itself.

In Dartmoor, as on Snowdon, there is much evidence of abandoned human efforts and these draw Garratt’s fascination.

He is interested in landscapes that emphasise the vulnerability of man.

‘Perhaps I regard adversity as a form of beauty. There is beauty in the knowledge that humans are not all-powerful and in control of the planet. We are at the mercy of it. If my paintings are able to communicate that beauty, perhaps that is what I am striving for.’

David West’s extraordinary talents both as a wood carver and as a painter seem to have realised a visionary peacefulness and contemplative quality in his recent work.

Gilded carvings of the moon and of moonlight on the sea were the first signs of his bringing the mystery and wonder he discovered on the Kumano Kodo pilgrim trail in Japan in 2008 back to his own surroundings here in Dorset. A fascination with light on the surface of water in all its many manifestations has followed.

His most recent work explores the shoreline, rock pools and tidal waters of the Dorset coast where the tide

comes in over flat layers of weathered rock.

Some gilded, some painted, these almost abstract rhythmic reliefs are unique and exceptional works of art.

Petter Southall has been making his distinctive furniture at his studio outside Bridport

since 1991.

He makes his designs by hand using an innovative combination of boatbuilding and fine cabinet-making techniques. He started working wood as a teenager building traditional boats in his native Norway. That knowledge and love of

streamlined curved forms has stayed with him throughout his furniture-making career.

A highly original and confident designer in wood, Petter's work is stunning to look at and very pleasing to use.

A rotating exhibition of samples of Petter's work are kept at West Bay, some of which is for sale and some available to commission to your own specifications.

*Tidal, Sladers Yard Contemporary Art, Furniture & Craft Gallery, West Bay Bridport, Saturday, January 26 to Sunday, March 10. Open: Mon to Sat 10am – 4.30 pm, Sundays 12 – 4.30 pm

All work can be viewed and bought at sladersyard.co.uk