Cactus recommends - Gary Abkin - new paintings showing at 'the Swich Contemporary Art Space', Ipswich

Highly recommend a visit, Gary is a remarkable painter - his work is vibrant, colourful and full of life. These newer works are less figurative and more abstract. There are references to the landscape, or more accurately the artists views of the landscape, but here it is a landscape obscured. The colours are rich, heavy mustard yellows and deep blacks. They are neither sombre nor bright, presenting as even, almost matter of fact statements of the artists view.

The works reminded me of Paul Cox's film 'Man of Flowers'. In the film an eccentric old man loves to paint and play music, he attends an art class where a nude young woman is posing for the students. He paints in a very concentrated manner and it is obvious that his teacher is annoyed because the old man is painting flowers, the teachers says 'why don't you paint what you see?' The old man replies 'I am.'

The photograph shows Gilbert Burgh opening the exhibition.