FEW Cumbrian art exhibitions can scale the creative heights that the Lake Artists Society summer exhibition reaches.

Running for six weeks at The Hall, Grasmere, it shows the work of the creme de la creme of the region’s artists and attracts something like 10,000 visitors each year.

The society was founded in 1904 by artist W G Collingwood, who was also secretary to John Ruskin.

The present elected membership is limited to 45 artists but the society encourages non-members to exhibit their paintings and sculpture during the show.

From Stephen Darbishire, Fiona Clucas, George Cannon, Phil Hobbs, Marion Bradley, Ron Dickens, Beverley White, and Kate Bentley to Gordon Griffiths, Gillian Robinson, Ian Walton, Michael Fennel, Vivienne Pooley, Martin Tomlinson, Angie Mitchell, Sally Toms, Ceri Allen, and for me one of the UK’s finest sculptors, Danny Clahane, they - and many other fine artists like them - all figure in the society’s 2014 showcase.

The catalogue list reads like a ‘who’s who’ of not just the county’s, but some of the north of England’s, best artists.

One of the standout painters in the line-up is Kevin Chester, a LAS council member, who spent time in Brazil where he painted society portraits, politicians and even a modern day Catholic saint. He also worked as a restorer and studied the Afro-Brazilian culture of Salvador - producing paintings based on those studies. In 2001 he and his work appeared on local and national Brazilian TV.

Kevin returned to the UK later in 2001, to the Western Highlands of Scotland. He came back to Cumbria in 2003 and in 2006 was awarded an honourable mention in the Art Renewal Center’s (ARC) International Open Salon in America for his painting Baiana de Itapua. This culminated in an exhibition on the ARC's website - which is dedicated to promoting traditional values in painting, drawing and sculpture.

Sadly, last year former LAS president Philip Macleod Coupe died.

An inspiration to many, Philip was best known for his oil paintings of Iona.

His book Paintings of Iona by Cadell and Peploe is on display during the exhibition.

So, another successful Lake Artists Society show - an irresistible fusion of art.

Runs until Wednesday, September 3, from 10.30am-4.30pm.