Here at Amelia’s Magazine we tend to grace scruffy east London galleries in the company of a trendy gathering with our presence. The private view of Andy Hill’s West End exhibition was somewhat out of our comfort zone; there was no gathering of young scruffy trendies at The Coningsby Gallery but rather a lot of middle aged, well dressed business folk. No sign of cheap beer and coke here, instead a selection of fine wines!

Andy Hill has been working in design and advertising for the last 25 years and is now, in his first exhibition named “If I couldn’t draw”, showing off his other creative talents of drawing and painting. He insists drawing and painting keeps him sane in his cutthroat day job.

All three storeys of the gallery were used to exhibit Hill’s work. On the ground floor hung large painted canvases entitled ‘Elements of the Universe’, inspired by climate change issues. These apparent poetic justice of nature are inspired by the lack of care for the environment and are suppose to make us think twice. These were skilled paintings showing powerful stormy seas and skies, however not powerful enough to make me think about them, let alone think twice. And to be frank, I wouldn’t really look twice at them either. Does anybody actually read this? These paintings were oddly accompanied by framed charcoal nudes, which reminded me of life drawing classes at art foundation; amateur and unimpressive.

A pleasant exhibition yet nothing special. Hill obviously has the ability to be draw, as most creatives do, but maybe not the strength to be an artist. One expects to come away from an exhibition impressed, excited and inspired but I left Hill’s preview night feeling none of these, although I was slightly impressed with the gallery’s personalised toilet seat.