A NEW collective of artists working in Harpenden are launching themselves with an exhibition of their work next Saturday, November 21. Members of the group entitled For Art s Sake have all exhibited regularly elsewhere but the Chapel at Highfield Oval wil

A NEW collective of artists working in Harpenden are launching themselves with an exhibition of their work next Saturday, November 21.

Members of the group entitled For Art's Sake have all exhibited regularly elsewhere but the Chapel at Highfield Oval will be the first time they have shown their work together.

For Art's Sake came about through the artists' need for a larger local exhibition space and they believe that exhibiting in the Chapel will give people room to stand back from the work and reflect on it.

The artists comprise Anna Perlin, Sue Gay, Millie Canning, Karole Lange and Sabine Bayley, none of whom has followed a conventional path into fine art which they feel has supplied some of the spontaneity that unites them.

Anna Perlin paints full time and has shown her work at the Islington London Art Fair and Mall Galleries, even though she graduated in textile design and her early career was in the fashion industry.

She mixes new colours for each painting and texture is an important part of her paintings in which she enjoys exploring the ever-changing British seasons and weather.

Sue Gay became a painter through a childhood love of palaeontology, the study of fossils, and her later degree course which led to a PhD in the comparative anatomy of extinct animals compelled her to draw accurately.

She brings 20 years of diverse experience to her drawing, painting and teaching today and won the Open Art Prize at the Herts Contemporary Art Fair in 2007.

Millie Canning is a genuinely local artist who has lived nearly her whole life on the Herts-Beds border. Working in acrylics, she produces larger-than-life photo-realistic images on canvas that take a view of natural subjects that is very different from traditional work in the genre.

Since graduating from the University of Herts as a mature student in 2006, Karole Lange has been exhibiting in London and around the country.

Her previous career was in TV and radio production and despite moving through video installation towards paper-based artwork, she remains passionate about black and white films.

Sabine Bayley has had a multi-dimensional career which has seen her combine work as a professional scientist with an involvement in art and sculpture that spans most of her life

She has received awards from the Digswell Arts Trust for her sculptural work and has exhibited at contemporary arts venues. She makes stoneware, ceramics and sculptures for the house and garden.

The launch takes place from 2pm to 6pm at The Chapel in Ambrose Lane.