SOME serious art muscle has pulled together at Kendal's Signature Gallery this month to make a stand for wildlife art.

Until August 30, visitors to the gallery can expect to be trapped in the gaze of Geoff Taylor's noble wolves, Philip Adler's majestic big cats and Marianne Birkby's owls and otters.

All the artists share a desire to offer something different to the landscape art that dominates the Lake District gallery scene and they have a passion for wildlife.

Yet their representations of nature could not be more different.

Marriane Birkby offers animal portraiture in the tradition of Beatrix Potter.

Her animals are friendly and pretty.

They would stop to admire a sweet flower and they would not bite if you approached them.

She works from sketches and photos to paint the animals and sets them in picturesque Lake District scenes liberally strewn with primroses, bluebells and butterflies.

Marriane hopes her work will seize people from the heart and stir a passion to protect their fellow creatures.

When talking about her pictures she is quick to betray her first love as a conservationist - she is an active campaigner with South Lakeland Friends of the Earth and the RSPB.

"This one of a bird at Rusland Beach," she says, indicating an idyllic scene of a bird hovering in a wood, "the national park wanted to chop the trees down but we stopped them and they are still there.

"It's how I started painting.

It wasn't really a love of art.

I'm passionate about wildlife."

In contrast, the wolves of Arnside art-heavyweight Geoff Taylor are determinately wild.

These roving packs are traced expertly in air brush and acrylics.

This is noble nature to be respected and feared and these are proud beasts who know their place in the ecosystem.

These certainly aren't the type of wolves to be seen dancing with Kevin Costner.

Geoff is famous for his bankable book covers for the likes of Tolkein's Lord of the Rings and Phillip K.

Dicks' Counter Clock World, but is more passionate about painting wolves and deer.

In a similar vein to Taylor, Philip Adler relishes the challenge of capturing the nature of a wild animal with as little compromise as possible.

To paint his big cats he travels to the warmer climes of Spanish zoos where their coats are shorter and closer to their condition in the wild.

And, like Geoff Taylor, Philip Adler likes his nature noble.

The titles give the game away - Spirit of Fire for his tiger portrait while his lioness takes on the aristocratic name Diana of Ephesus.

These are all big, dramatic portraits created by an accomplished figurative painter who has been creating and successfully selling his work for 15 years.

Both prints and original artwork are for sale and prices range from £30 up to £ 12,000.

For those without the readies to take their favourite picture home, there is a chance of winning a signed limited edition print by one of the artists by entering the gallery's draw.

All proceeds will be going to a wildlife conservation charity.

The exhibition is at the Signature Gallery, Kirkland, Kendal, and is open daily from 10.30am to 7.30pm.