SPRING is definitely in the air at Red Barn with a blaze of colour and some exciting artists to liven up the senses at the Melkinthorpe gallery's first show of the year.

Among those exhibiting is Rachel Wood.

An award-winning potter who works in historic Welbeck in Nottinghamshire, she makes individual hand pinched and coiled forms, as well as strong, thrown forms, inspired by the colours and textures of the Australian bush that she saw when on a far-flung residency in New South Wales.

Rachel works with what's known as crank clay, a resilient gritty stoneware, which has many characteristics of its own. The glazes, several on each pot, are painted, rubbed and layered on giving each piece a 360 degree aspect, each a superb one off almost with its own personality, with a host of tactile and varied surfaces.

Rachel - who won the 2016 Die Neue Keramik prize, in Germany, and most recently the 2017 Diessen Ceramic prize - says her personal intuitive touch was an integral part of the pots: "A dent in the soft clay, a tear, rip, and a finger or handprint in the glaze," adds Rachel. "I also love to explore the rhythm and movement of throwing clay on a wheel, excited by the freshness and spontaneity of the results."

Also showing her work at the popular art house is Irish born, Liverpool based, Clare Flinn, whose paintings are all inspired by the places and landscapes she loves. Clare left it until mid-life before picking up a brush to paint, and has only in recent years completed a fine art degree, though her work displays much maturity and sureness. Crashing seas, gentle shores and moody landscapes dominate her collection, worked mainly in acrylics and oils.

"I paint a variety of subject matter, but always seems to return to landscape," explains Clare. "Colour, light and texture are the paramount features of my painting."

Meanwhile, on the gallery's designer jeweller front is Misha Seelhoff.

Misha, originally from California, now lives in Somerset, combining painting and design to make a stunning range of colourful aluminium bracelets necklaces and earrings in bright shades perfect for a bit of spring time colour. Her techniques involves an anodising process which fixes the painting on to the metal.

She says her jewellery is the result of a life-long obsession with colour and the creative urge to make things with her hands: "I'm a painter obsessed with colour, and aim to create pieces that celebrate the many ways it occurs in nature; be it in flowers, plants, geology, or sunset skies."

All credit to Red Barn, with once again, plenty on which to feast your eyes.

The show runs to until April 29.

For further information telephone 01931-712767.