Allison Sharpe may live in Yorkshire, but her roots are here in the Radlett area.

Since yesterday, Ms Sharpe's landscape and portrait paintings and drawings are on exhibition at the Radlett Centre, in Aldenham Avenue, and last wek she said she hoped that many old friends and neighbours will turn up for the opening.

"It'll be lovely to come back and meet old friends and neighbours," she said. "I have lots of friends who are still in the area, and I sent notices to many of them about the private viewing the night before the opening."

"Private viewings always seem to be reunions," she said.

Ms Sharpe left Radlett in 1984 to take a Fine Art MA at Edinburgh University, where her work in the School of Art won several prizes. She then settled in Yorkshire, where she continues to find inspiration for her landscape paintings and drawings in the "lovely sea and rolling cliffs" of the area.

"When I was just about to leave the university, I saw an advertisement for a studio in Yorkshire with a group of other artists," she said.

"The area is very rich as far as subject matter goes," she added. "The beautiful settings are so dramatic."

Ms Sharpe has returned to the area several times to visit friends and enter work in exhibitions in London. She has exhibited work in several London galleries, including the New English Art Club, Pastel Society and National Print Exhibitions at the Mall Galleries. In addition, her work has been exhibited throughout the North, and in Norway.

The decision to submit work to the Radlett Centre came after she happened across it in an art magazine, and then visited the Centre in 1996.

"I was very excited to find it had been built," she said, "as when I was here there was only the library."

In addition to landscape art, Ms Sharpe also works in portrait art, some of which will be displayed at the exhibition.

Also on display will be several nude figure drawings. In total, Ms Sharpe expects to bring between 25 and 30 paintings to the show.

Future exhibitions of Ms Sharpe's work will include the Battersea Art Fair in March of next year, where she will display between 50 and 60 pieces of art.

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