This is a large and varied exhibition, with about 30 framed paintings, predominantly landscapes but also with a few still lives and abstracts, The landscapes are of favourite places, especially of the Lake District, which I first visited on a school trip at the age of 16 and have been revisiting as often as possible ever since. There is also a smaller group of paintings made on Exmoor, another wild space. The landscapes around Castelnau de Montmiral, a small bastide town in Southwest France, are very different. They are important to me because of my sessions at the Painting School of Montmiral which, quite apart from the teaching, was poised above a panorama of beautiful, extremely paintable countryside extending in all directions. Closer to home, there are some very local landscapes, set within the city boundary – river, canal and park. The abstracts in the exhibition are all investigations of the interaction between colours, one with another, but then, so are all the paintings, really. I am going to finish this introduction to the exhibition by giving you some quotations from my Visitors' Book. Obviously these are selected but I think they are generally representative of the whole. I am hoping they will encourage you to come and have a look for yourselves! . . . .-'Excellent, Jean. Your landscapes do seem to capture the moment and savour it',. . . . 'Very, very good',. . . . 'Lovely exhibition. So many we'd like to take home',. . . . 'Wonderful interplay of colours and textures', . . . . 'Beautiful, inspiring work', . . . . 'Vastly impressed by the texture and depth', . . . 'I want to write volumes about the delights', . . . .'Fantastic. Love the colours and the atmosphere'. . . . 'Lovely. My favourite exhibition', . . . 'Lovely use of vibrant colours and great depth', . . . . 'Beautiful and serene', . . . . 'Stunning', . . .. 'Loved the ones of the Lake District', . . . 'Wonderful abstractions and landscapes you could walk in to'. . . . 'Can't believe you only started to paint when you retired' . . . . 'Loved the variety and such a good setting for viewing' . . . . Officially the exhibition is only open for the middle week of the festival (11th – 19th May) but it should also be possible to arrange a visit at other than the stated times if this would be easier. Please call 01865 559819 for this and any other queries.