Chichester artist David Souter prepares for pastures new

David, who has lived in Chichester for the past eight years, is moving to Kent on January 31. From February 1, a selection of his prints will be available from Art For All in The Square, Eastgate.

“Working as a professional artist, I have become quite collected here, both originals and prints, not only of Chichester but of other places as well, though predominantly Chichester.

“For the past six or seven years, I have been a director at the Oxmarket Gallery where I feel that I have been able to make a positive contribution.

“There have been some challenges there with the changing personnel, but I feel I have been able to help there - and it has also helped my work as I managed the print shop and had some of my own prints in there as well.

“But having been here for eight years, I just decided that it was time for a change. I am going to Kent.

“I will be going to a place of natural beauty, and the inspiration there will be different which will lead to a new body of work.

“My main town will be Canterbury and I will also be close to Deal. I will be looking for commercial outlets there and also drawing on inspiration from the area.

“Eight years is quite a long time, and we didn’t think that moving back to London was an option because the prices there are just ridiculous.

“One of the reasons we moved from London was because of the frenetic nature of London, and Chichester is becoming a bit like that now.”

But above all, David feels generally it is always a good idea for an artist to look for new inspirations.

“I have always said that the inspiration for my work has been my travels and where I live. It is a good idea to move, but you have got to want to do it.

“I think people can just get very comfortable. But we have bought a place with quite a bit of ground, and we are doing a fairly major restoration work. We are doing the building and extending it. We did that a bit with our Georgian property here, and I think it is always good to have a project. We are looking forward to doing that in Kent.”

But in the meantime, David will live on in Chichester – in the shape of his prints, available from Art for All: “Their idea is that I have been here eight years, I have sold a terrific amount of work, and that with somebody that has been based around Chichester and has been inspired by Chichester, it would be a shame if that work was no longer available.

“They will have framed prints on display and also a browser where the prints can be ordered.”