SOMERSET artists James and Kate Lynch, who live on a hill overlooking the Somerset Levels, have both had work selected for The Life of the Fields, a major exhibition at St Barbe Museum and Art Gallery in Lymington, one of the most adventurous and prestigious galleries in the area. The exhibition runs to 10th January 2026.

The Life of the Fields features representations of farming and farmed landscapes from 1900 to the present day and includes work by notable artists from the 20th century including Stanley Spencer, Clare Leighton, Eric Ravilious, Edward Burra, Graham Sutherland, CF Tunnicliffe and Robin Tanner.

James Lynch is a painter of the English landscape and skies, inspired by wild flying with his paraglider. Using the ancient medium of egg tempera (made from raw ground pigments and egg yolks from his own hens) his paintings are carefully built up over time with many glazes of paint.

Kate Lynch is particularly known as a rural documentary artist. Her charcoal drawings, pastels and paintings celebrate traditional rural work and traditions in Somerset – willow growing and basketmaking, farming, cheesemaking, beekeeping, cidermaking and wassails and other crafts. She also collects the personal stories of her subjects and includes these in her exhibitions and books.

There is a fully illustrated hard-back book accompanying the exhibition which can also be purchased online through the St. Barbe Museum & Art Gallery website, www.stbarbe-museum.org.uk

Pictured: The Last of the Harvest, Mere Down, egg tempera on gesso-coated panel, by James Lynch; and The Hen House, Glebe Farm, oil on paper, by Kate Lynch.