PEOPLE on Paper is a terrifically engaging exhibition that brings together some of the finest drawings in the Arts Council Collection.

Running until December 17 at Abbot Hall Art Gallery, its a remarkable show featuring many of the greatest British artists of the 20th and 21st centuries.

Artists have been drawing the figure for centuries, from carefully composed life drawings to people caught unawares at leisure or work.

Although there are sometimes surprising similarities across the decades, techniques and approaches differ.

The majority are drawn from observation; some from memory or imagination; there are those that are unfinished studies while others are finished works in their own right.

Among the many artists featured in the People on Paper touring exhibition that's blazed a trail to Kendal is Lucian Freud, whose Drawing of a Girl, Alice (1974) pencil on paper, is typical of the artist who could capture the intimacy of a sitting with his model like no other. He had a particular interest in drawing, especially the face, and had a close relationship with his sitters. His mother sat for an extensive series in the early 1970s after she was widowed, and his daughters Bella and Esther modelled nude, together and individually. The human form more or less dominated his artistic output although he did create cityscapes and interiors, often drab and dismal reflecting the inner-city area of Paddington, London, that surrounded his studio.

Euan Uglow is another whose work will grace Abbot Hall's revered exhibition space.

Euan's In Controlled Passion (painting) exhibition at Abbot Hall in 2003 was one of the Kendal gallery's best. Abbot Hall was the first gallery in the country to stage a major exhibition of paintings selected from the whole of his 50-year-long career.

In fact, at the time it was mooted as the most important exhibition to come to Kendal since Lucian Freud in 1996.

His precise, meticulous technique and analytical observations are from the hand - and mind - of a highly intelligent artist, whose nudes are worlds apart from Freud’s: elegant, celebrating the beauty of form; whereas Freud’s exaggerated lines and brutal brushwork, although more expressive, hardly (and are not intended to) beautify the female figure.

Walter Sickert throws his creative weight into the exhibition too. One of the most influential figures in 21st Century British art, his contribution is A Weak Defence, a chalk, pen and ink on paper drawing from 1911.

Among the plethora of standout works is Barbara Hepworth's Reconstruction oil and pencil on board, a strong piece, as solid and as structured looking as one of the marvellous modernist's renowned sculptures; Alasdair Gray's Marion Oag and the Birth of the Northern Venus (1977) Indian ink on paper is another. Apparently, Alasdair met Marion Oag in 1968. She became a life-long friend and, before leaving for London in the 1970s, was a favourite model of his. The image was drawn with a Rotring Rapidograph pen, in a room where he lodged in Turnbury Road between 1971-75.

The astonishing ACE collection also stars Stanley Spencer's work as well as Mimei Thompson's Liquid Portrait 4 (2008) ink on paper, using a ballpoint. Her works look at the idea of the personality being 'liquid' and permeable; these 'portraits' could be seen as reflections of states of mind, simultaneously comic and psychologically dark (although not is this show of course, checkout Mimei's paintings if you get the chance sometime, rather surreal and caught between abstraction and the landscape; absolutely fascinating).

The whole Abbot Hall show is a must-see, feast of drawings by nigh on 50 artists.

Let's drop a few more names in to whet the appetite even more - Frank Auerbach, Martin Bloch, John Bratby, John Craxton, Peter de Francia, Antony Gormley, John Golding, David Hockney, Gwen John, Leon Kossoff, LS Lowry, Henry Moore, William Roberts, Eduardo Paolozzi and William Scott.

Abbot Hall Art Gallery is open Monday-Saturday, 10.30am-4pm.

For further information telephone 01539-722464.