THREE well-known figures from the region's arts world have teamed up for an exhibition that puts one of the region's towns firmly in the frame.

The highly regarded trio of Dawn Gabrielle Chandler, Martin Tomlinson and Phil Hobbs stage Ambleside Inside and Out, which runs at Ambleside’s Old Courthouse Gallery until May 11, and offers a portrait of the town from three different artistic perspectives.

Kendal-based Dawn is a huge talent. She was born in Manchester in 1964, where she lived for the first 13 years, until moving to the Lake District. She now works as a full time artist but trained in graphic design.

Dawn was always artistic from a very early age. Her life as a painter started when she was in her early thirties, when Dawn volunteered to help a local amateur operatic society with their scenery, ending up painting both sides of a 25-feet backcloth. Soon after, she discovered the versatility of gouache which became her medium of choice. More recently Dawn has returned to her earlier medium of pencil. Dawn is a member of the Lake Artists Society.

Martin was born in Yorkshire in 1945. His family moved to the Lake District in 1958 when his father started a Merchant Navy Telecommunications College at Wray Castle on the shore of Windermere. After leaving art college in the 1960s, and having spent two years with a blues band in London, he returned to the Lakes and spent time teaching at Brathay Hall Outward Bound Centre. He subsequently settled in Ambleside in 1970 where he, and his wife Jo, ran a small gallery and artists’ materials shop. For many years he has worked as a professional artist showing work at the Royal Institute of Painters in Watercolour, the Pastel Society and at the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition. Most of his recent work is in oils, the medium he has chosen for the Ambleside exhibition. He was elected member of the Lake Artists Society in 1970 and for 11 years was vice-president.

Yorkshire-born Phil has lived and worked as a painter in the Lake District for more than 40 years.

Working predominantly in pure watercolour, he has participated in many national exhibitions and held a number of solo shows in the UK, USA and Europe. Dividing his time between painting in the UK and Italy, particularly the vibrant vistas of Venice, Lakeland's own highly prized Canaletto, is a past president of the Lake Artists Society.

Phil says he has lived and worked in and around Ambleside all of his adult life: "I have watched it change and seen its people come and go. My first studio opened only yards from the Old Courthouse Gallery in 1979, finally closing in Ambleside in favour of Troutbeck Bridge just over three years ago.

"The farms, blacksmiths’ workshops, slate works and boatyards were all among my favourite subjects, alongside, of course, the landscape that is forever changing whilst at the same time remaining timeless."

To tie in with the Old Courthouse Gallery exhibition, Phil has launched his new book, P L Hobbs A Sketchbook, with many of the illustrations featured of Ambleside or its surrounding environs.