AMONG artists exhibiting in the Great North Art Show at Ripon Cathedral, which opens this weekend, is Jill Campbell, a painter who lives in Bishop Auckland.

Since graduating from Sunderland University in 2014 with a first class degree in fine art, she has exhibited in both the UK and internationally.

Her expressive paintings are a response to the wild and beautiful Weardale landscape. Her working process begins with site visits for sketching, photographs and notes. Then, in the studio, these ideas are developed through intuitive, direct gestural marks which guide the progress of the painting.

The process is a balancing act between preparation and improvisation, representation and abstraction, and between detached observation and personal engagement with the experience of being in the landscape.

The show features 300 artworks by 50 contemporary painters, sculptors, printmakers and photographers.

Wendy Jones, of Darlington, is another artist exhibiting. Born into a family of artists, she trained as an art teacher in Durham and at Camberwell School of Art, gaining a distinction on graduating. Since retiring from teaching she has continued to paint and exhibit work.

"Usually I take a theme for several paintings. Recently it was allotments, now it's hanging lines," she said. "From my garden, through the Dales, and as far as Japan, lines of washing tell their story".

Lucy Saggars, of Ampleforth, is showing photographs taken on walks and encounters with people who live and work in rural communities.

"I like to draw the viewer's attention to the nature of rural life, as well as the beauty of the landscape and natural world," she said.

Much of her work centres in and around her home village where she is working on an ongoing project, Ampleforth Life.

"My starting point is usually a walk, often inspired by the light. My walks often involve an encounter or an organised meeting. I seek light and shadow, people and goings on.

"It is ordinary life that I would like to bring into my photography, because it is ordinary life that is so important, so everyday that we often stop seeing its beauty," she added.

The exhibition runs until September 25.