KURT Schwitters is recognised by most as the supreme master of the collage.

Of course, there was more to the innovative German-born artist that spent his final years living in Ambleside, before his death in 1948, than just his pioneering use of found objects, his legacy includes landscape and portrait paintings, sculpture and poetry.

However, it was his assemblages and Merzbau creations that sealed his reputation as a pioneer of installation art and a major artist of European Modernism.

Running until October 12, at the Cylinders Estate, the home of Schwitters’ Merz barn in the Langdale valley, is a new exhibition of work by the highly thought of Green Door artists.

Members of the popular Kendal-based artists’ collective were invited by Littoral Arts to visit Cylinders, to create new work inspired by the work of Schwitters or by the barn and its surroundings.

Green Door at the Merz is the creative results of the project and includes paintings, prints, collages, diorama, sculptures and ceramics.

In her Hood E artwork, Ann Marie Foster references the papery territory of Schwitters and his use of the discarded debris of the every day.

“I took faded paper patterns used in dressmaking and collaged them to create another layer of meaning,” explained Ann Marie. “These opaque, ghostly papers refer to previous identities of the wearer. The garments carefully constructed from the paper patterns have been shed along with the previous selves that inhabited them. In my use of collage materials I’ve contrasted the mechanical nature of the lines imprinted on the paper patterns compared with the fluid, intuitive contours of the figures.”

Cally Lawson has created a large collage, inspired by Kurt Schwitters’ collages and his use of found objects. Beyond the Lines incorporates a reclaimed frame and an old stag skull and antlers. Emulating the colour palette, use of found objects and abstract style of Schwitter’s famous collages, the artwork evolved from the intricate natural lines in the skull’s structure.

Mike Healey said that he had created a complex three-dimensional diorama that was an expression of Schwitters' celebrated claim that perspective was a 'swindle.'

“I have inverted normal perspective, so that images close to the viewer are small whereas objects further away are large, thereby 'destroying' classical Renaissance perspective,” added Mike. “Within this framework there are smaller, equally dramatic narratives going on in which visual expectations and perspective are constantly usurped.”

Green Door administrator Janice Benson said members have relished the opportunity to create new work in such an inspirational setting: “Some of them were already familiar with Kurt Schwitters and the Merz barn project but others have made their first visit to the Merz barn and have been stimulated by the beauty of the site and the legacy of Schwitters’ work.”

The Merz barn building is located in a remote woodland in the heart of the Langdale valley. It serves as a symbolic connection and poignant memorial to the spirit and tenacity of the artist who worked there.

Other GD artists exhibiting include Gordon Baddeley, Roger Bell, Averyl Bradbrook, Barbra Cropper, John Davenport, Janet Graves, Lynda Gray, Marion Kuit, Karen Lester, Richard Light, Anne MacKinnon, Marjorie Park, Ana Sequeira, Elizabeth Shorrock, Keith Shorrock, Steve Trevillion, Geraldine Walkington, Andy Wild and Frances Winder.

The exhibition runs until October 12.

Open 10am-5.30pm daily.