Artist inspired by visits to big cities

ARTIST Tom Butler will be opening an exhibition of his work at the Lemongrove Gallery in Henley tomorrow (Saturday).

He specialises in collages with a personal touch inspired by his travels worldwide.

He creates cityscapes and landmark locales with segments where a section of a crossword puzzle becomes a block of flats or shop signage and there is a three-dimensional, textural element to them.

Tom, from Hartley Wintney, says: “A lot of what I do is capturing buildings and architecture and interpreting them in my own way but sometimes that can end up just looking like any high street.”

He recently returned from a trip to Paris with his wife, who is French, and their children.

“She has got family out there and it was the first time for a while we’d gone with the kids,” says Tom. “I was just walking around, looking at things and snapping away, which I try to do wherever I go.”

Shortly afterwards the couple went to explore York as it had been on his to-do list of places to go.

In the show, there will be three originals featuring Henley, in one case the market place, as well as a range of cities he has visited including Venice, Paris, New York and London. There will also be limited-edition prints on sale. Tom will be at the gallery in Duke Street from 3pm to 5pm.