In Diane Nevitt’s new series of paintings analogies with music come ever more to mind. Just as music’s abstract form communicates experiences shared, so in Diane’s paintings rhythm, structure and colour are skilfully orchestrated to produce works which sing with pure harmony – sometimes radiant and joyful, sometimes darker and more brooding, but always with her own particular enigmatic style.

As usual the inspiration for these latest works is her experiences of places or events: the lush shoreline of Lake Maggiore on a hot midsummer’s day; Robert Wilson’s strange animal sculptures on Isola Madre with Michael Galasso’s haunting music; a train journey through the Dolomites to the old spa town of Merano. We can recognise some familiar motifs, clearly harking back to earlier work but now reinvented in new unpredictable contexts, constantly building a self-referential visual vocabulary.

Living with paintings day in day out, it’s easy to stop looking, similarly once more to a favourite piece of music too often heard. But real art is never defeated that easily – surprising you when you least expect it and stopping you in your tracks. Familiar works are seen or heard anew while the new strike a sudden familiar chord. This mysterious quality is encountered only rarely in art but it’s here unmistakably in Diane Nevitt’s paintings.

Gallery exhibitions include: New Street Gallery, Plymouth; Walton Gallery, Kensington, London; Stour Gallery, The Cotswolds; Coombe Gallery, Dartmouth; Somerville Gallery, Plymouth; ArtLondon, Chelsea. Corporate and public collections include: Government Offices for the South West, Regional Development Agency; twofourtv.com; Carlton TV; Anvil Projects, Guernsey.