AN EXHIBITION of paintings by Tina Balmer is the latest show to grace the revered walls of Brantwood's Severn Studio.

Tina's Arriving Where We Started sees the Ulverston-based painter back on the exhibition trail after a spell at Eastbourne.

Running at the Coniston venue until May 4, she has painted new work especially for the Brantwood exhibition, which will be on display alongside some of her more familiar pieces.

Tina is an exceptionally talented, and modest, artist. Her work is an appreciation of everyday objects, from table top settings with teapots and teacups, to exuberant paintings of flowers. As and when they seem important, she will paint landscapes, gardens and people. Tina looks intently at the subject, studying shapes and shadows formed, perspective is often ignored in an attempt to achieve a painting that captures the moment.

“Sometimes my paintings move towards abstraction," explains Tina.

"Then they return to something more figurative, all in the process of trying to capture the essence of the object, whether flowers, animals or figures.”

Tina’s technique is to build up layers of oil or acrylic paint using loose brushwork, scraping and rubbing to create the effect she seeks.

A former student of the prestigious St Martin’s School of Art, Tina moved with her family to Ulverston in 2006 from Newhaven in Sussex.

Painting full time, she joined the highly thought of Green Door Studios network at Kendal and became involved in running its annual art trail and opening her house to visitors like she had for Artists Open Houses in Brighton. Soon after arriving in Cumbria she joined the Printfest Committee, taking up the director’s role the following year for Printfest 2008. Later she joined the artists’ cooperative which set up and built the Beach Hut Gallery in a disused railway station building at Grange-over-Sands.

Brantwood is open daily from 10.30am-5pm.

For further information telephone 015394-41396 or visit www.brantwood.org.uk.