ONE of the most eagerly anticipated events on the Lake District's arts calendar is upon us - the Lake Artists Society's summer exhibition, which opens this Saturday (July 30).

The showcase attracts thousands of visitors to The Hall, Grasmere, each year with its vibrant mix of oil paintings, acrylics, watercolours, drawings, prints, sculpture and lithographs.

Among the works on show will be Gold Beatrix Potter, a diptych portrait of the Lakeland storyteller and sheep breeder, by Japanese artist Hideyuki Sobue.

Hideyuki, whose studio is at The Factory, Kendal, decided to "bridge East and West" by painting Beatrix's face and a flock of her favourite Herdwicks onto a gold background. The colour choice was inspired by the traditional Japanese fusuma panels painted onto sliding doors at Buddhist temples and nobles' houses.

The artist, who studied in Osaka and moved to the Lake District in 2005, also had Andy Warhol's Gold Marilyn Monroe in mind - a canvas of unevenly painted gold with the film star's silkscreen portrait in the centre.

Hideyuki's tribute to Beatrix Potter on the 150th anniversary of her birth follows the success of his diptych portrait of poet William Wordsworth and a sea of daffodils, exhibited at Rydal Mount last year. He described the picture as "a critical turning point" in his artistic career.

Also on display in Grasmere will be pieces by such esteemed and long-standing society members as Martin Greenland, Philip Hobbs, Graham Twyford and past president Vivienne Pooley, alongside less familiar names and non-members. Vivienne is acclaimed for her spectacular mountain paintings, and has won the John Entwistle award for best Lake District landscape, said exhibition director Kevin Chester.

- Until September 7, 10.30am to 4.30pm daily. www.lakeartists.org.uk