THE FIRST of this year’s exhibitions in Petersfield Museum’s community gallery has strong connections to the area.

In Pursuit of Spring is the title of the show by Portsmouth-based artist Ben Mackay inspired by the words of Steep poet Edward Thomas.

A lover of the prose and poetry of Edward Thomas since 1958, Ben has long been inspired by Thomas’s 1913 book In Pursuit of Spring and in 2016, his son, also named Edward, cycled the route Thomas followed using pre-1914 Ordnance Survey maps, while Ben drove it.

In 2017 Ben re-visited the route again, in stages, and sketched/photographed places he could identify in the book and cross-reference to the maps. The work in this exhibition results from that exercise, with some views around Steep.

All items are for sale and Ben will use the proceeds to fund a trip to visit the Berg Library in New York to allow him to study Thomas’ original diaries from his journey ‘In Pursuit of Spring’ for a book he is writing.

The exhibition will be open Tuesdays to Saturdays from today (March 20) to March 31, from 10am until 4pm. Normal admission charges to the museum applies.

The museum in St Peter’s Road opens today (Tuesday).