AN UNUSUAL exhibition featuring a familiar face in Dorchester opens tomorrow.

Artist Mike Chapman is exhibiting Soul Searching in Dorchester at The Gallery at Duke’s Auctioneers Fine Art Saleroom in Dorchester.

Mike's sculptures and paintings feature in the show, which is open to the public from February 5 to 19.

One particular piece that will be featured in the exhibition is a portrait of Steve in Dorchester who sells The Big Issue in South Street.

Mike said: "Everything I do, whether a painting, a drawing or a sculpture, is an attempt to comprehend what it means to be alive, or more precisely what it means to be a soul trying to be alive.

"I seek to find the truth beneath the surface. Like Steve, a homeless guy who sells the Big Issue to get by - known by everyone, probably understood by few.

"I got to know him a bit over a coffee and when I got up the courage to ask him to allow me to paint his portrait; I got to know him a lot more.

"A portrait, if authentic, is a collaboration between artist and sitter. A journey, and by its conclusion, I believe I got to see the beautiful soul of a fellow traveller.

"A stranger, on seeing the painting recently, said “It has altered my perceptions”. I know – it altered mine.’

Originally an art director, Mike spent many years working for ad agencies in London, Stockholm and New York, eventually becoming a creative director of one of London's most enormous outfits.

Having returned to his initial passion of visual art he now enjoys a successful career as a stone carver and figurative painter.

Inspired by the works of Gaudier-Brzeska, Brancusi, Mestrovic, Moore and Epstein, Mike believed the proper way to follow them would be to learn the real skills of stone carvers before venturing into his own practice as an artist.

After two years studying with stonemasons from the Dorset limestone quarries, Mike opened his own studio in the summer of 1996, and in 2004 he held his first solo exhibition at St Martins-in-the-Fields in London.

His work is now in the collections of a number of institutions throughout the UK and in private collections both here and in the United States.

Recently, he has rekindled a love for two-dimensional imagery, both through drawing and painting, constantly seeking new ways to express his interest in the human spirit and form.

The exhibition of Mike Chapman’s work is open in the gallery from Monday to Friday, 9am to 5:30pm and on Saturday from 9:30am to 12pm.

See dukes-auctions.com or call 01305 265 080 for more information.

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