Above: ‘Bognor Back-Garden: Early Evening, ‘The Cherry Tree and The Printer’, and ‘Pond by Arundel Wetlands Visitor Centre’, by Oscar Romp and part of his exhibition, ‘Always a Way Through’ now on at Denmans Garden. See below.

Oscar Romp writes about his current exhibition, ‘Always a Way Through’:

As Artist-in-Residence at Denman’s Garden, I am building up an entirely new body of work specific to this landscape and location, which we will keep from view until the end of Residency exhibition in the new year. (Many of these have been featured on my online blogs which are posted on the Denmans Garden News and Blogs page.)

My new exhibition, ‘Always A Way Through, features past works exploring ‘garden-scape’, landscape, and seascape subjects. These works all have a strong observational input – though memory, imagination and compositional invention also creep into the mix.

Whenever I paint or draw from life, I grapple with the chaotic complexity of what I see. Whether it be a cityscape, a ‘dance-scape’ or a landscape, the struggle is the same. In this exhibition, in my paintings of my Mother’s garden, and the drawings of ‘wilderness corners’ etc., at Arundel, I’m especially aware of the infinite chaos that Nature throws at you. The Artist’s Vision comes through selecting and presenting this ‘nature-chaos’ in a way that it still feels impactful, and is almost, but not quite completely overwhelming. The eye instinctively arranges and makes sense and value out of the indifferent world it perceives. The eye instinctively plots a way through the undergrowth just as we plot and plan our way through life, and what often seems like an indifferent or hostile world.

Through selecting and picking out a visual ‘way through’ the picture as it is being made, I sometimes achieve an appreciable sense of depth and space in images where, on the surface, there is paradoxically not much space. I tend to choose busy subjects and try to cram in much more than an objective lens could scientifically take in. Many of the images are small in size, too, and if anything, that smallness just adds to the intensity.

For more information on Oscar go to https://www.oscarromp.co.uk/

@oscarromp