Exhibition Preview: All is Mortal: An Exhibition of Unseen Works by Roy Anderson, Pallant House Gallery, Chichester, until January 27 2013

Although the only parties to pick up on his prolificacy were a Manchester Guardian critic and a publication in America, self-taught artist Roy Anderson hit peak productivity during the 1960s, having served as a soldier and become a committed Socialist at the end of the 1940s.

The Exeter-based artist’s work has remained private for 40 years. But he sees this display of his Expressionist-style painting in Pallant – “to even get on the premises of the gallery is a great compliment to me” – as a last chance to elucidate his ideology and life experience. “I want to show what I am,” he concludes.

Anderson was also influenced by Cubism and Post-Impressionism during his most intensive creative years, creating political posters and reflecting on some of the cartoons made during his time in the army.

“I paint what I feel, rather than what I see,” he says, pointing to Maurice Utrillo, Francisco Goya and Paul Gauguin as a few of his muses.

“I can’t escape the conclusion that art was a kind of therapy – a ritual that untied knots in me.”

• Open 10am-5pm (8pm Thursday, 11am-5pm Sunday, closed Monday. Studio exhibition – telephone in advance to guarantee entry.) Admission £3.50-£9 (family ticket £21.50). Follow the gallery on Twitter @PallantGallery.

More pictures: