Highgate artist Veronica Green stages new exhibition Sky and Rock with Chagan Contemporary

A RISING star artist from Highgate is staging her first major solo exhibition in London.

Veronica Green, 29, has joined forces with Chagan Contemporary, a new art gallery on the capital's art scene, for the exhibition of oil paintings.

Veronica's earlier works focused on still life jugs and bottles, and her latest canvases explore the objects that make up a landscape, showing aspects such as sky, rock, sea and beach.

Veronica said: "My latest paintings have taken me in a new direction.

"I used to work with a lot of vessels and other objects, capturing them in a type of still life on the canvas.

"But when I started drawing a small statue of the author Walter Scott, which we used as a doorstop at home, I found that laid on its side the folds of the robes and drapery resembled hills and this kick-started me in the direction of painting landscapes.

"Each painting in my exhibition either contains a patch of sky, some sea, a rocky outcrop, a beach, or buildings, and sometimes all five.

"I like to keep some things in my paintings that are recognisable, whilst abstracting others. Along with vivid colour, this excites the eye, whilst the mind is reassured as some shapes are familiar to it and form a meaning through association."

The latest exhibition follows two successful joint shows in 2008 in London and a solo exhibition in Edinburgh. Geeta Chagan, owner of Chagan Contemporary, regularly holds monthly shows, aiming to offer an alternative to traditional galleries by exhibiting in domestic settings.

Sky and Rock is open today, Sunday, and Saturday, May 14 and Sunday May 15, from 10am to 6pm, and by appointment until May 30, at 31 Clarendon Gardens, W9 1AZ.