EDWARD King always plays the genial host on preview nights at Abbot Hall Art Gallery, but I don't think I've seen the director of Lakeland Arts Trust, which owns the gallery, in such an exuberant mood as at the opening of the Howard Hodgkin exhibition.

He was positively purring.

Quite right to, what with the Kendal art house hosting a touring exhibition of the first major exhibition to fully appraise Hodgson's work in print; Blackwell, at Bowness, also under the trust's umbrella, firmly on the map as one of the country's finest examples of the Arts and Crafts movement, and having took over the Windermere Steamboat Museum, setting sail on an adventurous journey to hopefully transform the run down rather needy place into a multi-million pound attraction showcasing historic watercraft.

Mr King is firmly at the helm of a thriving arts organisation, during a very exciting period, indeed.

And by the looks of it, he's lapping it up.

With the Hodgkin exhibition, I sense another Abbot Hall success, where Hodgkin's bold swathes of colour in prints such as Put Out More Flags and the abstract tones of his Venetian Views series, which switch from a sunny glow of leopard spots to deeper tones, evoking seawater at dusk, will no doubt pull in the crowds.

During the past 40 years, Howard Hodgkin has produced in the region of 130 editions of striking and beautifully crafted prints.

He is best known as a painter. But has continually explored the possibilities of printmaking, using a variety of media and techniques to put together a substantial body of work as accomplished as his oils, ranging from large to smaller works.

Born in London in 1932, Hodgkin has established himself as one of Britain's most respected artists, internationally renowned, and although foremost a painter he has designed stage sets, costumes and furniture, as well as experimenting with printmaking, which he first did as a student.

His first professional print Enter Laughing was produced in 1964, when he was one of 25 young artists to make their first screenprints with the master printer Chris Prater, of Kelpra Studio.

In 1977, Hodgkin mastered the lithograph techniques thanks to influence of the printer Bruce Porter at New York's Petersburg Studios and in 1985 he was awarded the Henry Moore Foundation Prize at the International Print Biennale for David's Pool, a print inspired by David Hockney's Hollywood Hills home, where Hodgkin stayed with Peter Blake in 1979.

Featuring a kidney-shaped pool barely discernable within green vegetation and Hockney blue' in the wash of colour in the water's midst, its one of many bold and expressive prints created by an extremely distinguished artist.

Both an artist - and arts organisation - to be celebrated.

Howard Hodgkin Prints runs until June 30.

Abbot Hall Art Gallery is open Monday to Saturday, 10.30am-5pm.

For further details telephone 01539-722464.