THE Donderdag Collective’s spring exhibition in York opens tomorrow at Mermaid & Miller, in Swinegate, with a private view by invitation from 7pm to 9pm. The show, From Life: Expressing The Human Form, will run until May 31, open Monday to Saturday, 10am to 4pm.

Artists in the collective come from diverse artistic backgrounds including an illustrator, a writer-researcher and an artist who was selected for the 2013 Royal Academy Open exhibition.

The members are Kate Kenney, Lesley Birch, Swea Sayers, Peter Huddleston, Griet Beyaert, Pyramid Gallery owner Terry Brett, Diane Cobbold, Rick Cobbold and the late Ray Fearn.

"Ray died recently and was a very special member of our group," says Lesley Birch. "He was a member of York Open Studios too and a great friend of successful York artist Jake Attree. We feel privileged to have met Ray and we're showing one of his beautiful oil paintings as a tribute to him."

Donderdag was founded in 2011 when the artists met at Bar Lane Studios to explore the possibilities and challenges of the life model. "We later ‘branched out’ as a private artists’ collective, meeting at Space 109 and now at St Clement’s Hall in Bishopthorpe," says Lesley.

"The group is named Donderdag, which is Flemish for Thursday – the day we meet each week – and it was inspired by one of our founding members, Griet Beyaert, being from Belgium originally. We support each other in our artistic practice and each artist has a very individual, different style."

The Donderdag Collective's inaugural exhibition of life drawings was held in the White Room Gallery at Priestley’s No 36, in Bootham, York, throughout February.