ON Reflection is the theme of the Askrigg artists' group annual exhibition, which is held at the Dales countryside museum, Hawes, for the second year in August.

For the talented young guest painter Jill Hodge, of Preston Under Scar, it is also her second exhibition at this superb new venue. Her interest in landscape has developed over the years and now is a prominent subject matter in her work.

Living in the dales has provided her with endless inspiration for her etchings and paintings.

Jill moved to Wensleydale in 1989 from south-west Scotland and attended Wensleydale school, Northallerton college and York college of art and design, before going on to Loughborough university where she graduated in 1999 in fine art and printmaking. She now lives in Edinburgh working in a print shop, where she continues to develop her own work using non-toxic methods of etching.

She has exhibited widely in England and Scotland and is a resident artist at Southwold, in Suffolk and in the permanent collections at Loughborough university.

In October, she leaves to help set up an art school at Sharjah, 12 miles from Dubai with Brendan Neiland, the keeper of the Royal Academy schools and Michael Harrison, head of fine art of the Royal Academy schools.

She will be encouraged to continue her own work in her own studio space and have excellent exhibiting opportunities. Their profile will be very high, as there are no other artists in the state - a very different way of life from rural Wensleydale, where there are many talented artists.

The permanent exhibitors of the group at the venue in Hawes are potter Andrew Hague, photographer Emma Amsden and painters Piers Browne, Judith Bromley and Robert Nicholls.

Andrew Hague is well known in galleries nationwide for his blue ware and his individual style of stoneware and he always comes up with a surprise with something new for this annual exhibition.

Emma Amsden, a profoundly deaf photographer, has been around the area over recent months with her camera; she prefers to use natural light. Her silent and intense observation of dales people, animals and landscape are captured in strong and powerful images in the gallery.

Piers Browne has worked intensively for his forthcoming book on paintings of trees, which no doubt will form a part of the exhibition, as well as his dramatic landscape etchings. He has two etchings in the Royal Academy show this year.

Judith Bromley was last seen in June at the Dales countryside museum's gallery in a solo exhibition on the theme of woodlands. These works form a part of a book due out in autumn using a variety of media.

Her husband, Robert Nicholis, is also inspired by the dales environment and he is renowned for his pastels of wildlife and landscapes, but loved for his paintings of Swaledale sheep.

The charity preview is tonight, 8-10pm, in aid of the Low Mill Barn project which will provide young people with the experience of living in a remote and wild area near Semerwater.

The exhibition runs daily from tomorrow to Tuesday, August 28, 10am to 5pm, at the museum.