A former Come Dine with Me contestant and musician who toured with the band Ash is holding an exhibition in the town he grew up in.

Artist Richard Kaye will exhibit his work - including quirky sketches of people who have fallen asleep on trains - at the Malthouse Gallery in Lyme Regis from August 17 to 29.

Richard has been living in Ottery St. Mary with his family for more than 13 years. Moving down from London to bring his two children up in Devon, close to his parents, who lived in Lyme Regis, he has a deep love of the area, having lived in both Lyme Regis and Bridport as a young man.

Prior to moving back down with his family, Richard had an interesting career in music which included a stint touring the world with a rock band, including playing on the main stage at Glastonbury and doing Top of the Pops. The band's name is Ash and Richard was their scratch DJ!

While living in Ottery he also appeared on the TV show Come Dine With Me.

He said: "Art has always been an important part of my life, whether it’s been simply sketching a view, or someone who’s fallen asleep on a train, right through to my recent obsession with printmaking. This exhibition focuses on my last four years, which have been some of my most productive."

Richard is candid about enjoying some subject matter which most people and artists would tend to ignore. Using copper plates and a traditional hand pulled technique, the work he makes focusses on bold silhouettes against the sky. This has led him to produce several series of prints focussing on, trees, telegraph poles, communication masts, cranes, and also scaffolding.

Having trained at Bournemouth College of Art where he focussed on drawing and painting. Taking inspiration from the landscape around him, he has become fascinated by portraying what he sees in a compelling way. He has led an interesting life, having a huge passion for music, which led him to tour the world and play on the main stage at Glastonbury.

During his early printmaking career he was totally fixated by drypoint intaglio printmaking and worked in the Double Elephant studio in Exeter. Using copper plates and the traditional hand pulled technique, the work often focuses on bold silhouettes against the sky. This has led him to produce several series of prints focussing on Trees, Telegraph poles, Scaffolding, Communication Masts, Cranes and Scaffolding.

The images tend to be very bold and distinctive, with some of the more urban subjects being somewhat unexpected. Richard takes pleasure in finding strong compositions and angular forms within subjects which are often missed or ignored. Turning these images into highly detailed and intricate prints was the basis of Richard’s introduction to printmaking.

In the last few years Richard has started to work on a larger scale, with screen prints which he then hand tints using water colour. Again the subject matter has remained somewhat out of the ordinary including industrial steel and glass station roofs as well as modern architecture. With these prints he uses a subtle palette of colours to bring intricacy, delicacy and focus to the work.

This series started when Richard was taking photos of Waterloo station roof and realised that each of the panes of glass were slightly different colours.

He said: "I love this roof. This was probably due to the different ages and types of glass used when individual panes were replaced. It formed the basis for the first series of prints on Waterloo Station, then others followed.

"The architectural works are more recent and include modern buildings and tinted glass where again watercolour is used to bring life and form to the work."

Outside his printmaking, Richard is a keen painter and has been producing a small series of abstract landscapes focusing closely on colour balance and composition to engage the viewer.

Also within this show he has included an unusual series of drawings of people he sees who have fallen asleep on trains (Sleepers as he calls them). These are simple sketches done on the journey between the south coast and London.

*Richard Kaye Recent Work 2014-2018, Printmaking, Painting and Drawing, Malthouse Gallery, Lyme Regis, August 17 to 29, open daily 10.30am to 4.30pm.