A new art exhibition will be launched at a Port St Mary studio this Easter weekend.

The work of island artist Andrew MacKellar will be held at Studio 42 on Bay View Road with a preview taking place on Easter Sunday from 1.30pm to 4.30pm.

Andrew has painted and sold pictures for more than 30 years and he was finally persuaded to have an exhibition in 2015 at the Erin Art Centre. He exhibited a collection of abstract paintings in oils and acrylic.

Such was the success of the exhibition, his work was also exhibited at The Engine house in Castletown.

The latest exhibition is in part influenced by the Covid pandemic and the ideas that came from that strange period.

Andrew said: ‘The environment [during the pandemic] changed and with it many ideas. Only able to get out locally led to drawings and sketches of local places and views.

‘This exhibition “Trees, stones and jewels” is the third exhibition of paintings and sketches influenced largely by the Isle of Man and how the people of the island have built and interacted with it

‘The paintings are influenced by the idea that the concerns of those who lived in the island remain the same from years ago to our more sophisticated times

‘The great openness surrounding the island, our home, seems to have been important to the people here throughout that history.’

Andrew says he sees his work as led by ideas requiring different expressions. He is primarily a landscape painter with work ranging from very abstract to representative.

He said: ‘There is a common thread running through all my work, that is whatever is viewed, or painted from the most abstract of ideas/ feelings to the clearest representation, can be presented as if alive.

‘All subjects fall on the spectrum of which everything is a part, whereby things are created or born, exist and then end or decay. The representation of objects is often very abstract, allowing a feeling of the flow and changes within a living environment.’

His exhibition features the likes of Port St Mary harbour and Monk’s Bridge in Ballasalla while trees also feature from a special part of the island.

‘The trees are views of a site in the Isle of Man that is being used as part of the project to revive temperate rainforest on the west coast of the UK,’ Andrew explains.

‘The ancient forest only exists in limited areas. In the island it is being replanted under the guidance of the Wildlife Trust and with the Isle of Man Woodland Trust.’

Andrew’s work has been influenced by a wide and eclectic range of other artists, from Richter, Pollack, Mir to Friedrich, Winslow Homer, Turner, Church, Moran and David Roberts, all of whom influence his techniques and perceptions.

Studio 42 can be found be found on Bay View Road in Port St Mary and is open Wednesday to Friday, from 10am to 5pm and on Saturdays from 10am to 4pm.