Next Friday, November 1, sees the opening of the 40th Annual Landscape Paintings of the Isle of Wight Exhibition, at Ventnor Botanic Gardens. Established in 1984, the early exhibitions in Shanklin and St Lawrence, arranged by Robin McInnes and Andy Butler, both of Ventnor, initially focussed on the local history and art of the Undercliff coast.

By 1994, the exhibition moved to Ventnor Winter Gardens. The exhibition that year, comprising over 300 works, is believed to have been the largest ever display of historic oil paintings, watercolours and prints of the Island.

The exhibition was opened by Lord Mottistone, Governor of the Island at the time.

Robin McInnes, who had been studying and writing about Island art for many years, had noted how the period from 1870s-1890s had been a golden age for Isle of Wight landscape painting. Robin felt that it would be wonderful if people in decades to come could look back and say that the period from 1990-2020 had been another great age of artistic creativity on the Isle of Wight.

With this in mind, in 1992, Robin established a major annual ‘Landscape Paintings of the IW Art Competition’, with cash prizes sponsored by Island businesses, and over the years more and more artists participated.

This year’s exhibition, at the Botanic Garden, features works by 30 artists some of whom have exhibited annually since 1994.

Looking back over this long period, Robin McInnes said: “I really believe that the last forty years will be seen as another great era for Island landscape and maritime art!”