SIX Somerset artists are taking part in a virtual exhibition this month.

The Creative Coverage Virtual Exhibition features the work of many artists around the UK and runs until May 18.

Hilary Adair, from Minehead, is one of the artists taking part.

She studied fine art at St.Martin’s School of Art in London and printmaking at Brighton College of Art. Her ideas are expressed using sketches, drawings, acrylics and oil paint on paper and canvas.

Now settled in West Somerset, she finds inspiration for both printmaking (etching and linocut) and painting at home and abroad.

In 1991 Hilary was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Painter-Printmakers at the Bankside Gallery in London. Her paintings and prints have been exhibited widely and are in many public and private collections.

Marilyn Ewens, from near Taunton, gets inspiration from her home at the foot of the Quantock Hills.

Her current work celebrates the Somerset countryside together with paintings of the Scottish Highlands, coastal and cricket scenes. Although she mostly works in oils, Marilyn also uses watercolour in combination with pastels and enjoys making large charcoal and wash drawings. Her paintings have been exhibited in Bath, Cardiff, Castle Cary, Exeter, Henley-on-Thames, Taunton, Truro, and the Royal Academy, London.

As well as painting, she holds classes in the Taunton and West Somerset area for aspiring artists of all abilities and enjoys introducing beginners to the great adventure of painting.

Wellington artist Joanna Commings has been drawing and painting all her life.

For 14 years Joanna lived in Cornwall. She worked primarily around the Camel Estuary, the coastal scenery of Rock and Padstow, the North Cornish coast and Bodmin Moor. Following a move to Somerset in 2015, she is enjoying discovering a new landscape around the north and south Devon coasts, the Blackdown Hills, the Quantocks and the Mendips – a new focus on trees, woodland and softer farmland.

"I love both landscape and portraiture, for which I take commissions," she said.

"But I continue and will always continue to go back to Cornwall."

Joanna works mainly in acrylics, which she loves for their versatility - on canvas, watercolour paper or board. Her work has been exhibited in galleries in Cornwall, Devon, Dorset, Hampshire and Somerset.

Jennifer Evans, from Yeovil, is a member of the Worshipful Company of Painter-Stainers where she regularly exhibits at Painters Hall.

"I work mainly in watercolour, preferring its freshness and spontaneity to capture the fast-changing English weather," Jennifer added.

She has exhibited at The Mall Galleries and the Medici Society Gallery in London. Her work can be found in collections in the UK, New Zealand, Singapore, Switzerland and the United States.

South Petherton's Patricia Regnart exhibits annually with the Society of Botanical Artists since she became a member in 1991.

"I moved with my family to Ireland as a child and here, wonderful landscape and colours made a lasting impression and I began to draw and paint early on," she said.

Patricia first studied drawing and commercial art at the National College of Art, Dublin; going on to study painting and printmaking at the City & Guilds School of Art, London, winning a travel award for study in Florence. Later she became tutor of botanical drawing at the City & Guilds Art School.

Alex Howell, from Frome, travelled in Europe, India and the Far East working as a fashion designer.

On relocating from London to Somerset in 2008 she took up painting full time. Her work has been selected and sold in the Royal Society of Marine Artists exhibition at The Mall Galleries. Alex participates in the Frome Arts Trail.

“I love experimenting with a wide variety of reflective and matt mediums which alter and shift according to the available light thus resulting in my paintings constantly changing as the hours pass," she added.

"Nothing thrills me more than on a dark and gloomy day to see one of my canvas’ shining out.”

Visit creativecoverage.co.uk/artist-news/virtual-exhibition.