MAKING, A Life celebrates the lifetime’s work of the acclaimed Cumbrian folk artist Peter Hodgson.

On show at Coniston Institute, it is the first ever exhibition to bring together more than four decades of the distinguished maker's diverse output.

Down the years Peter has been a highly influential figure on the visiting artists and curatorial direction of Grizedale Arts.

Born in 1950, he grew up on a remote Lake District farm without electricity or running water, and went on to learn the trades of leatherwork and saddlery.

These days he works from his studio and shop, Hide and Horn, at Ambleside.

Peter’s work has evolved to encompass engraved glass, hand-painted tiles and ceramics as well as painting, yet his enduring theme remains his acute and witty observations of the natural world, in particular the habits and characteristics of animals, wild and domesticated.

Arguably an ‘outsider’ artist, under represented in the contemporary art world, Peter’s new exhibition contributes to a vital review and re-understanding of British folk art. His work moves fluently between popular and naive art, contemporary art, making and design, while drawing on the heritage of the Lake District and of Coniston Institute itself.

Peter has forged strong links with Coniston Institute, selling his wares through Coniston Honest Shop, and with Grizedale Arts.

Since first meeting Grizedale Arts’ director Adam Sutherland way back in 2002, Peter has collaborated and co-produced with a stellar list of artists and designers, including Maria Benjamin, Fernando Garcia Dory, Karen Guthrie, Tom Philipson, Juneau Projects, Endless Supply, Graham Taylor and, most notably, with Laure Prouvost on her 2013 Turner Prize winning Wantee installation.

Making, A Life, presents Peter's independently developed ‘back catalogue,’ co-productions, as well as Peter and his collaborators’ responses to one another’s creative endeavours, including artists Manchester-based, Joseph James Hartley, whose work for Making, A Life was commissioned by Castlefield Gallery, and focuses on forming an installation, comprised of diverse mediums that include ceramics, leather, horn, textiles, wood, printmaking, writing and film.

The exhibition also includes work by makers within constituent groups at mima, Middlesbrough, who have reciprocal and dynamic relationships with both Grizedale Arts and Coniston Institute.

Coniston Institute is open Wednesday-Sunday, from 11am-5pm.

The exhibition runs until November 19, before heading off to Manchester's Castlefield Gallery from December 8 until February 11 and mima at Middlesbrough, from October 20, 2018 until February 3, 2019.