An Exhibition of Paintings and Drawings by Dina Southwell and Jason Gathorne-Hardy is at Hintlesham Hall, Hintlesham until January 15.It's always a thrill to come across an artist whose work you've never seen before; most particularly when it is as remarkable as Dina Southwell's.

An Exhibition of Paintings and Drawings by Dina Southwell and Jason Gathorne Hardy, Hintlesham Hall, Hintlesham until January 15.

It's always a thrill to come across an artist whose work you've never seen before; most particularly when it is as remarkable as Dina Southwell's.

Cobbold and Judd's new exhibition, now showing at Hintlesham Hall, features the work of two artists; Dina Southwell and Jason Gathorne Hardy. In recent years Gathorne Hardy's work has gone from strength to strength. Southwell is another artist we all need to watch.

This two person show represents an unusual but brave marriage. Southwell, although her work explores water, is primarily and at her best as a landscape artist, working in oils. Jason Gathorne Hardy is known for his loose, but exacting drawings, many of which are inspired by the sheep and cows on his own and nearby farms. Southwell's work moves the spirit through colour and light, Gathorne Hardy's through the fluidity and movement in monotone line.

In this exhibition, however, the rams and cows that we normally associate with his work are far less in presence. In fact the best of his images, excepting a drawing of a Suffolk ram, portray birds of flight rather than the earthbound.

Anyone who grew up by the sea, or has read one of Chekhov's best plays, can't fail to be moved by the plight of the seagull. It's a bird that people tend to either love or loathe.

In works like Seagull Rising and Seagull Landing Gathorne Hardy captures it perfectly; the breadth of its wings, its solitary yet engaging nature. What these drawings portray is a sense of freedom, the relationship between sea and sky, and to some extent escapism In Seagull Preening one also gets a sense of inner nurturing, self-love.

These are images that would look fabulous in both a traditional and modern setting; they question the relationship between the material and spiritual and for that reason they soar above.

Dina Southwell's paintings, particularly the larger ones of Landsmere, have an extraordinary beauty. Southwell truly understands the meaning of colour, and has the confidence to apply it, at times as in Glasgow To Oban, with the broadest and most confident of brushstrokes. Light is also a major player. Like Gathorne Hardy she too confronts the elements; water and land. The most mesmerising of blues, the greenest of greens, the stillness and depth of water, the relationship between the underworld and upper growth.

Her Reflections (on the backwater) is also striking; capturing the most reflective, tranquil mood. I also adored the subtle sublimity contained within Two Fish. Her work seems to explore the beauty within memories, what exists and what is based on imagination. Southwell is certainly one painter I don't want to take my eyes off.

Sonia Carvill