KENDAL Museum is as much a treasure itself as the many fascinating objects in its wide-ranging collection.

As I see it, the Station Road venue is one of Kendal’s best-kept secrets – but it shouldn’t be.

Locals and people from far and wide should be queuing up to see its outstanding displays of archaeology, geology, and natural and local history.

Although, it’s one of the oldest surviving museums in the UK, founded actually in 1796, it isn’t a musty and dusty old place with dark and dismal recesses.

Quite the contrary, it’s a well-lit, airy building with displays that range from wildlife across the world, one of the largest collections of minerals and rocks from the Lake District and Northern England in Britain and plenty of displays that both unlock the past and help us understand the present.

So then, what better place to host an exhibition of creative work by one of the region’s most active and passionate proponents of capturing nature in art, Marianne Birkby.

Marianne’s Other Creatures exhibition runs at the museum’s Lake District Natural History Gallery, from January 29 until June 27.

The exhibition includes Marianne’s Clustering Common Blue an award winning painting in mixed media, which was exhibited at the Nature in Art Exhibition 2008, for the Wildlife Art Society International.

Marianne tells me that her Clustering Common Blue painting was inspired by butterflies on a low mountain path in the Mont Blanc area: “In our Cumbrian mountains I get very excited at the sight of one common blue butterfly so seeing this many clustering together was a real joy.

”I’m just as entranced by everyday wildlife encounters close to home – the Duck Race painting was inspired by the sight of the Dallam ducks rushing under the Deer Park bridge to get to their bread feast from a young family feeding the ducks. The painting was completed during a demonstration at Yew Tree Barn, Low Newton and now features on the Derwent Pencil Company website.”

Marianne is continually inspired by the fragility and tenacity of the natural world and is a well-known and tireless campaigner on issues that affect the world around us.

She founded Radiation Free Lakeland, she tells me, “as a response to Cumbria County Council’s ‘expression of interest’ in burying nuclear waste.”

“There is everything to lose and nothing to gain from burying nuclear waste,” she points out.

Creativity that responds directly to the ever changing but constant natural world started in Marianne’s childhood.

And her undeniable sense of wonder at the diversity of life on earth continues in her exhibitions.

Her artworks are created with a knowledge of field craft developed as a youngster.

She sketches in journals while out and about, making a detailed visual record as well as recording her thoughts and feelings.

The next stage is back in her studio where the sketches and photographs evolve into paintings.

Marianne’s a real busy little bee.

As well as paintings for Derwent’s website and promotional material for the company, her paintings of water creatures, such as great diving beetles and medicinal leeches, can also be seen at the interactive display in the new building at Tarn Hows.

She is also a member of the Artists for Conservation Foundation, Wildlife Art Society International, and a member of the eminent Kendal-based Green Door Studios.

Other Creatures is well worth seeing, naturally!

Kendal Museum is open Thursday, Friday and Saturday, from noon-5pm.