Oil painter Pip Todd Warmoth spends four months of every year on the road in order to find inspiration for his paintings, so he is not a man to be flustered by minor hitches in his travel schedule. But he admits to not inconsiderable discomfort during his stay in Hong Kong as the guest of the Mandarin Oriental while his latest works are on display at the China Club.
Nothing to do with the hotel, of course, but the fact that the airline managed to mislay his paintings, and they only arrived hours before the opening last Tuesday.
'I have had 20 people working flat out to unpack them,' he said. 'It hasn't been much fun.' Todd Warmoth's first exhibition of Asian landscapes took place here two years ago, but his contacts with Hong Kong go back even further. David Tang bought one of his pieces from a Royal Academy summer show, then wrote to offer to help him make contacts here.
Hence the posh China Club venue for his new show, a place which normally only showcases the work of Chinese artists.
The 36 works on display include many from a recent trip to Tibet.
'There are some of people working in fields, harvesting, working in the market in Lhasa. I guess there is some feeling of sorrow there, but it isn't sadness. There is a feeling of spirituality in Tibet I have never felt anywhere else,' he says.