An exhibition of recent work by Nicky Brown and Hugh Webster, Long Gallery, Hintlesham Hall, Nr Ipswich until April 22.

An exhibition of recent work by Nicky Brown and Hugh Webster, Long Gallery, Hintlesham Hall, Nr Ipswich until April 22.

Spring opens its doors and welcomes you into Cobbold and Judds's latest exhibition, now showing at Hintlesham Hall. It's as bright, light, and airy as a new spring day.

The show features the work of two prize winning artists; Nicky Brown is a former winner of the Sunday Times/Singer and Friedlander Watercolour Competition, and Hugh Webster was awarded a David Murray Landscape Studentship by the Royal Academy.

Brown is a landscape painter who has an astute understanding of light; its shifting patterns, its gift to embrace and lift. In her paintings of cows grazing, small and large, which include Cows at Thorpeness, she creates a setting of complete harmony. This is a work of energetic and tempered brushstrokes; bands of golden colour contrasting with vital, windswept grasses, and softly formed foliage and trees. Brown's paintings lead you in. In Early Morning, Burnham Overy, and Seawall, Late Evening one is presented with the most pastoral of vistas. Bulrushes and purple irises present an aperture from which the eye travels ever onwards.

Some of Brown's works, including the small gem Burnham Overy, Marshes Morning, are quite realistic, others more impressionistic. In Martello Tower, an image of hazy light, she evokes an atmosphere that transcends time. The stones on the beach merge their hues; the tower has a ghostly eloquence. Aldeburgh is also striking; a row of magnificent stucco houses contrasting with the multi-toned stones on the beach, the lap of the white sea.

Hugh Webster's paintings are all about the sea and its vessels. He currently works and teaches from his studio in Felixstowe Ferry Boatyard. In the larger paintings Hope Snow Dropped the Sea, and Hold the Line he captures the energy and movement of the lapping wave; its dazzling myriad of blue hues, its biting, cold texture. The smaller paintings My Walls Are Full, and Hammock Days are more abstract; penetrating close-ups in which pattern and line dictate the form and atmosphere. Going Down by the Yard, a larger painting, is even looser; its paint thinner and more free flowing in areas. Light seems to sift through the paint creating an aura that engulfs the viewer. You are left touched and wondering.

Both Nicky Brown and Hugh Webster have exhibited their work widely and have paintings in prominent collections. This is a delightfully light and uplifting show.

Sonia Carvill