KEITH Noble has been a regular exhibitor at the Silk Top Hat Gallery since 1996. He works mainly in watercolour and has great admiration for the skills of Turner and John Singer Sargent. He considers himself a modern traditional painter but strives to put extra impact in his work through use of subject material, working contre-jour and implementing some design element in each painting.

He works mainly in watercolour but also some oils. His favourite subject matter is coastal, architectural and figurative and also some landscape. In watercolour, he works in the traditional way using pure sable brushes, applying very little body colour, with all the highlights being reversed out to leave white paper showing through. He works wet in wet, very rarely using more than three washes which gives a softness to his work.

He is inspired to paint a subject by the effects of light and atmosphere and is particularly fond of the paved streets in towns like Oxford where the flags give a perfect reflection as in 'Umbrellas, Catte Street, Oxford'. His paintings develop freely - ‘it is better a loosely drawn work that captures the mood than a well-drawn one that doesn’t’.

He was born in Chorley, Lancashire 1949 and studied at Bolton College of Art and Blackpool College of Art. In 1994 he left London where he had been creative director in a design/illustration studio and moved to Shropshire to become a full-time artist.

He is a member of the Royal Society of Marine Artists and has recently been elected a member of the Royal Birmingham Society of Artists and he is a past president of Ludlow Art Society. He has received numerous awards for his work and was included in the Royal Society of Marine Artists Annual Exhibition 2015. He has written articles and has produced a photographed demonstration for the Art of Drawing and Painting, The Artist and Illustrator Magazine and The Artist Magazine. The television programme ‘Watercolour Challenge’ recognised his skills and his paintings were featured several times in their magazine. The exhibition will run until July 30 and there is an open invitation to meet the artist on

Saturday from 11am to 1pm.