MALVERN THEATRES curator, Humph Hack, has looked at digital photographs to make his selection for the venue's latest exhibition, and he makes no apologies for that.

In fact, his selection for the April and May exhibition brings three very different artists to the theatre, and none of them has exhibited in the Malvern venue before.

Mr Hack said: "Some years ago, the Royal Academy in London decided to make the initial selection of artworks for their annual Summer Exhibition, from digital photographs submitted online.

The establishment were horrified! The selection of works to be shown in Malvern Theatres has been made in the same way for even longer. The artists all sell through an online gallery. The fact that the paintings are nearly always better than the photo has proved right, yet again. The new exhibition in Malvern Theatres, brings three artists from across the country to show here for the first time."

Mr Hack added: "Marc Todd is a contemporary landscape painter, living and working in the UK City of Bath. Much of his work is based on subjects and locations in and around Bath, London, and the South West of England. He takes his primary inspiration from structure, texture and composition, and has a love for the application of vivacious colour palettes, dramatic and contrasting light effects, and dynamic mark-making to create aesthetically captivating surfaces.

"Marc's works cover a range of subjects including cityscapes, trees within the landscape, and expressionistic floral compositions. All the works in this exhibition draw their inspiration from the natural world."

Martin Leighton was born in Montrose, Scotland in 1951. A self-taught traditional artist, he now concentrates on painting in oils on canvas at his studio on the South Coast.

Mr Hack said: "He paints a variety of subjects including landscapes, seascapes, wildlife and still life, but he is passionate about portrait and figurative subjects having undertaken many commissions. Painting with oils is his favourite medium and he aims for his paintings to look realistic yet not photographic. Lighting is an important factor so he paints from life models. Achieving skin tones is such a challenge. He becomes totally engrossed in the painting until satisfied with the finished work.

"His work has been shown in the UK and South Africa and paintings are now in private collections worldwide."

Anna Cumming lives in Malvern and walks the hills for a couple of hours a day with her dogs.

Mr Hack said: "Some days are unremarkable, but on others it’s breath-taking. Just before or after a storm; or when the mist is in the valley, and we have a white rainbow in a cobalt blue sky above it; or the October sunsets; or just an odd cloud formation and interplay with the sun or moon. All this feeds into her paintings.

"She loves the hills, but is also drawn to the sea. Her works shows an interest in moody skies, turbulent seas, interesting reflections and the play of light. Her paintings are based on experiences from St Ives to Scotland, but the intention is to capture a mood or energy. "