Rating: 4/5

In the year that Barnados revealed that one in five British families are unable to afford a trip to the seaside, Samuel Thomas’s work shows why such visits are a vital balm to the tired soul and body.

Combining pop art, art deco and psychedelic styles, Thomas’s paintings are joyous and unencumbered bursts of light, water and flowers. 

Mainly but not exclusively of East Anglian scenes, they beckon the viewer towards their seductive new Jerusalems of simple pleasures — watching an air display, sitting on a beach or walking through a cliff-top field. Three descending gulls draw the eye towards the faraway pier and the promise of fun as well as the sun burning in variegated shades through the clouds.

Coming inland, Thomas offers vistas of rural calmness but also the happy hustle-bustle of cities, including Norwich.

Working mainly in acrylic on canvas, the painter certainly offers what most yearn for on a British holiday and not just the pampered middle classes on some retro-special excursion to the 1950s.

Thomas also reminds us that the sea is a place of work for some and in his rerpresntation of Cromer fishermen a boat is manhandled out to sea, its lines and that of the tractor bleeding perfectly into puddles in the foreground.

These are not backward-looking pastiches but aspirational projections of the self into a better future — a little like Dorothy stepping into Technicolor for the first time.

It’s a touring exhibition and well worth seeking out. 

Samuel Thomas’s work is on display throughout this year at a number of locations around the country.

Tour details: samuelthomasart.co.uk