I HAVE always been a fan of Mary Ann Rogers's rural subjects' since our paths crossed in the early 1990s, and I was delighted to hear the Northumberland-based painter was heading to Cumbria for another show.

This time Mary Ann is exhibiting at Elaine and John Parkinson's Upfront gallery, a beautifully converted 17th century barn, with a number of exhibition spaces under its Hutton-in-the-Forest roof.

And, I'm told, as well as the artwork and crafts, delicious cakes feature among the Parkinsons' edible goodies.

Mary Ann was brought up with a love of wildlife and wild places and keeps a vast menagerie of domestic birds, including guinea fowl, geese, peafowl, bantams and ducks, many of which find their way into her watercolours alongside the elongated hares, foxes, flowers and landscapes.

More recently she has brushed up on foxhounds.

She studied the shapes and flow of a pack of hounds working together, and spent much of the past year using watercolour to convey these themes, with a sense of urgency, driven by the possibility that foxhounds could soon be a thing of the past.

Last autumn, Mary Ann put two days aside and followed the Ullswater fell pack as they worked in the fells above the lake, and some of them figure in the Upfront exhibition.

Recently voted by members of the Fine Art Trade Guild into the top ten living artists in print, Mary Ann's exquisitely styled and graceful work can be found in private collections all over the world, and exhibitions of her work, brimming with life, movement and colour, pull in the crowds from far and wide.

The quirky hens, majestic cockerels, piglets and ducks, all endearing farmyard characters, range in style from fluid minimal brushwork through to more introspective, controlled work.

As well as her feathered friends, the garden of the artist's Leam Cottage is cultivated to provide flowers for her renowned spring and summer paintings, which are splashed with nature's colours, particularly the oriental poppies.

Another great source of inspiration, which features heavily in Mary Ann's work, is just over the wall of her Hexham home - sheep, grazing on the hills of the picturesque Rede Valley.

Mary Ann has had a long-term love of the Lakes and some of the very first galleries to show her work are in the region, and provided a vital part of her growing career - it was a fairly easy drive over from her home in Northumberland to deliver paintings while the children were at school.

Like legions of other artists, she spends her holidays walking and sailing among the fabulous fells and lakes of the region.

There are more than 30 paintings in the Upfront exhibition, plus a range of limited edition prints on show.

It runs until September 19.

Upfront is open daily 10am-5pm (except Mondays).

For further details contact 01768-484538.