THE Chambers Institute Gallery in Peebles is the venue for a forthcoming exhibition of paintings, The Surface of this Town, by Philip Hutton.

This selling exhibition runs from April 18 to May 30. Some 50 oils and 20 watercolours will be displayed, depicting both familiar and odd aspects of Peebles, employing a variety of methods and expressing a variety of moods.

Although the collection is dominated by current and recent work, there are also paintings which cover the town’s past, going back to 1970.

The artist is a “gutterblood” native of Peebles, though he lived in Edinburgh, Aberdeen and Selkirk before returning to Peebles, where he has lived on the High Street for the last 35 years. He is a graduate of Gray’s School of Art, Aberdeen, and the Open University.

He taught art at Selkirk High School, Borders region primary schools, and Borders College evening classes, led the Thursday Morning art classes at the Drill Hall for twelve years, and has lectured on art history.

He exhibited previously in this Gallery several times. After Ruskin, in 2000, was an erudite contribution to that writer’s centenery.

Philip’s art is wide ranging, but even within Peebles townscape there are influences from wider sources and art precedents.

He enjoyed the friendship and support of the late John McNairn, one of the “Border Boys” exhibited at the Gallery in 2012, himself a student and friend of Gillies, Haig, and Anne Redpath. Philip continues that lineage.