As the art industry reels from the havoc wreaked by Covid-19, Philip Sutton RA, a 92-year-old artist shielding in a residential home, takes matters into his own hands and opens his own gallery.

Located near the Jurassic coast, and amongst undulating fields where cows and sheep graze, Bridport in Dorset is famed for its literary festival and monthly farmers' market. In a corner of the rural town at the top of some iron steps in an old Victorian warehouse is the British painter, Philip Sutton's new gallery.

Sutton believes that art has the power to help people.

"I find the big forces in the natural world – the rain, the wind, the sky and the trees – comforting, and my art talks about that," he says over the phone.

At the Philip Sutton Gallery entrance, I meet Rebekah Sutton, Philip's manager and daughter.

As a shard of sunlight penetrates through the old windows of the warehouse and lands on a chaise longue, the first thing I notice about the exhibition is the colour. Sutton paints with bright primary colours, and his hand moves across the canvas like an impressionist. There are big open fields with flocks of rooks rising high into the sky; there are bunches of flowers in vases on kitchen tables covered by intricate table cloths; and there is a painting of a tree exploding with blue, red, and green.

I turn around to tell Rebekah how fabulous the show looks, but she has closed the door on me. Philip Sutton: His 21st Century Colours allows visitors by appointment only. They must wear masks inside and enter in bubbles of up to four people.

As the son of a door-to-door salesman and a Marks and Spencer's checkout assistant, nobody would have expected that when Philip Sutton was born in Poole in 1928 he would become an artist, but Sutton has a way of confounding expectations. After going to the Slade School of Art on a scholarship, he rose to fame in the 1960s thanks to the backing of Benjamin Britten and Peter Pears. He has stayed part of the public consciousness since, becoming a Royal Academician in 1988 and being collected by names such as Tony Blair and Princess Margaret.

Today, I can't visit Philip Sutton in person. Since the outbreak of the pandemic, like many other older people, he is shielding in his residential home.

"This year has been really hard, but the new gallery has filled me with hope," he says over the phone.

Covid-19 has had an impact on every aspect of the art market. The industry is heavily dependent on travel and in-person contact – two things which are made difficult by the pandemic, and art gallery sales have fallen by 36 per cent on average.

While many major galleries are either closed or accepting reduced admission numbers, interest in art itself has actually risen during 2020 as the public looks for healing. The Courtauld Gallery, for instance, reported an audience spike of 723 per cent on its website during the March 2020 peak of the pandemic.

Surprisingly, despite his age of 92, Sutton has an extensive social media network which has maintained popularity in his brand during lockdown. In the course of the delayed Royal Academy Summer Exhibition this paid off. Sutton sold five out of his six paintings, one of which was bought online without the buyer seeing the picture in person at all.

The shift towards e-sales is a noticeable consequence of Covid. Total online sales account for a 37 per cent share of overall business in the first half of 2020. This is up from a 10 per cent share in 2019.

But even if customers are spending more time online, the desire to view paintings in person remains.

"People are desperate for events to happen," says Rebekah Sutton. "We wanted to put on a Philip Sutton show this year, but most of the commercial galleries were nervous because of Covid. We decided to take matters into our own hands and found a new gallery. We're hoping that visitors to Phil's show will find some relief from what has been a difficult year."

I am standing in front of the Bird which was painted by Philip Sutton in April 2020.

"When they sat us all down in the residential home and told us that we couldn't leave or receive visitors, I was shocked. To help me recover I started imagining that the home was full of exotic birds. My new bird pictures are all about escape," says Sutton.

For all those who want to escape into Sutton's imagination, Philip Sutton: His 21st Century Colours is open at St. Michael's Art and Craft Quarter in Bridport, Dorset.

To book tickets for a free private viewing, visit Eventbrite