JULIAN Cooper's paintings possess a reverence of their own, sublime works that transcend the norms of mountain art.

Many embrace cathedrals of rock that rise vertiginously and elegantly to great heights.

One such painting is Cave di Gioia (2010) where mechanical diggers and a bulldozer bathe in a sun drenched Italian quarry, pocket-sized in comparison to the sheer scale of their surroundings.

Ravaneto Battaglino is another oil whose enormity is hard to grasp as the pattern of quarry roads zigzag their remarkable way to an unseen summit.

Running until July 2, Julian's Abbot Hall Art Gallery exhibition Paintings from 1970 to 2017 has to be one of the Kendal's gallery's most captivating solo shows in years.

South Face, Mount Kailash and five other colossal canvasses loom large and irresistible in the gallery's first floor main space.

Down the steps into the main space lower section and the white columns of Fantisenitti Portal invite you to squeeze through the pillars of marble into another realm.

And while the brilliant blue sky and light of High Cave beckons, Coniston Quarry 2 scales the wall at the opposite end of the lower gallery, luring the viewer to imagine a breathy ascent, scrambling to the wind-bent trees atop.

Elsewhere in the gallery, Julian's Towards the Sea, Scafell (1988) pictures on the horizon the cooling towers of Sellafield with the choppy waters of the Irish Sea beyond; jagged-edged boulders fill the foreground, providing a perfect example of how Julian skilfully harmonises his palette of blues and browns.

However, the Abbot Hall show isn't all about the Cumbrian artist's rocky and rugged vistas: Calle Nicaragua (Under the Volcano, 1982), Beach at Locarno (1983), the Edward Hopper-like Bella Vista Hotel (1982) and architectural Opera Square, Cairo (1983), point to his earlier years as a figurative painter.

For me, Julian is a magician. His paintings leave me spellbound, applying the paint so inventively that you can almost touch the folds and fissures of the textural rock he captures.

He paints sculpturally as though his long handled brushes carve and caress the paint onto the canvas.

One of the ingenious and radical elements of Julian's work is that he doesn't actually touch the tip of the towering peaks of many of his mountainous subjects.

He admits himself that he chops the summit off, homing in on the belly of the mountain itself.

Stand back in awe and admire the monumental work of one of the greatest painters in contemporary art.

Abbot Hall is open Monday-Saturday, 10.30am-5pm.

Telephone 01539-722464.