IMAGES of mountain ranges, clear blue skies, timber chalets, fairytale walled towns and remote mountain passes evoke John Ruskin's love affair with Switzerland and the Alps in a special exhibition at Coniston's Ruskin Museum.

Ruskin, Switzerland and the Alps is one of many events happening this year as part of the International Year of Mountains, the Cumbrian Mountain Festival and the British-Swiss festival Dialogue Across Mountains.The display features 20 drawings and watercolours loaned by the Ruskin Library at Lancaster University, and is enhanced by memorabilia revealing Coniston's rich climbing heritage.

As museum curator Vicky Slowe explained, Ruskin was fascinated with rocks and minerals from boyhood, inspired by the unusual examples his father, a prosperous sherry merchant, would bring home.

Seeing crystals as miniature mountains, his "mental telephoto lens" enabled him to see the world from a distance, in sweeping panoramas, or to focus on minute detail, as the artwork on display at the Ruskin Museum reveals.

The collection begins with a picturesque pencil and ink drawing dating back to Ruskin's first journey to Switzerland, aged 14.

This summer tour of 1833 had a profound impact on the young Ruskin, who described his first sight of the Alps as "not only the revelation of the beauty of the earth, but the opening of the first page of its volume."

Later trips concentrated on Chamonix, on the French side of Mont Blanc, where Ruskin drew the peaks and glaciers, following in the footsteps of his artistic hero J.M.W.

Turner.

He loved the colours of the mountains, particularly 'precious' blues, purples and ultramarines, and captured the opalescent qualities of light on snow.

"Towards the end of his life, when he went back to Chamonix, he was horrified at the way the glaciers were melting," said Vicky.

"This fed back to the effects of pollution and the warming of the atmosphere.

He saw it as a foreshadowing of doom."

One of the most impressive drawings is of Neuchatel, where Ruskin took his cousin Joan Severn in 1866 for an early summer Swiss tour with his friends Sir Walter and Lady Trevelyan.

Pauline Trevelyan was taken ill and died soon after reaching Neuchatel, and Ruskin later returned to make this incredibly detailed drawing, featuring her grave.

The exhibition also features photographs of the Alpine peaks taken by the Abraham brothers; and books, photographs, climbing gear and memorabilia recalling the Fell and Rock Climbing Club's lengthy links with Coniston, and the celebrated Coniston Tigers climbers.

It runs until November 10, and the selection of artwork will change in July.

For more information call 015394-41164.