Natural Partners , Inspired By ...Gallery, Danby

THE wind struck my side and fittingly swept me into Inspired By…, the contemporary art gallery located in The Moors National Park Centre on the outskirts of Danby between Stokesley and Whitby.

Natural Partners is a group exhibition of work by artists Caroline Riley, James Morgan Williams, Jan Richardson and Freya Horsley, united here by artistic interpretations of the untamed energy of coastal landscapes.

Drawing inspiration from the terrain of her childhood, the homing instinct was too strong to fight for Caroline Riley who now works from a studio in a converted tractor shed in Commondale, a stone’s throw from the house she grew up in.

Submerging herself in environments that abound with dramatic coastlines and stunning trees, references to her previous career in textiles are evident in the artist’s intricate compositions and almost tangible mastery of texture.

Similarly saturated in their location, James Morgan Williams’ watercolours possess a Turner-esque sense of drama, movement and magnitude far greater than the supports they are presented upon. It is not surprising to learn that the artist, accomplished in capturing gulls in flight – beaten by the waves and weather he depicts – lives and works in Saltburn.

Lincolnshire-born Jan Richardson moved to North Yorkshire in 2008 and her adoration of the county is clear to see as her gentle washes of kaleidoscopic colour collide in a sensitive, yet playful depiction of place.

Constantly challenged by the county’s land, sea and sky, Freya Horsley has been striving to capture the intangibility of changes in North Yorkshire weather conditions since settling in the county after graduating from art school.

Layers of thin washes are overlaid with great swathes of vibrant colour creating cacophonous, wild compositions packed with all the unbridled energy of a stormy sea resulting in colourful, abstracted seascapes so sensory they appear almost aural.

The exhibition leaves the visitor almost able to taste sea salt on the lips and feel the wind in one’s hair. It continues until Sunday, January 24.

Sarah Mayhew Craddock