THE sellout solo show by artist and printmaker Annie Soudain at the Rye Art Gallery closed on January 5 after a six-week run. With about 50 framed prints and as many unframed being sold, this was yet another exhibition success for the versatile artist. Her strongly designed and vibrant linoprints, collages and gouaches of the plants, birds and landscapes around her East Sussex home always prove particularly popular with locals, with Frosty Morning being a big hit. She is well known for her card series and these were snapped up, with some buyers having the larger £5 versions framed as Christmas gifts.
For the show, the artist was persuaded to frame one of her woodpecker-design tea towels. It looked very dramatic and demand for the unframed versions was fierce, with one visitor on preview day buying eight – “one for each girlfriend”, he said, one hopes in jest. Soudain has shown at the Barbican Library, the Society of Botanical Artists of which she is a member and the Kirsten Kjaers Gallery in Thysted, Denmark. Her work is in private collections around the world. To find out more about the artist visit anniesoudain.co.uk
The Rye Art Galley is at 107 High Street, Rye, East Sussex TN31 7JE 01797 222433 or visit its website.
Top hut: one of the most popular of Soudain’s hand-coloured linoprints was Rye Harbour, an old, red-roofed, familiar landmark beside the river Rother at Rye Harbour