Sarah and Peter Barber are exhibiting their winter show, Colour And The Sea, at the Blakehead caf, gallery and bookshop, in Micklegate, York.

"This is the second successive year that we're running an exhibition there," says Sarah, who paints under the name of Ray.

Sarah works in oils in a bold style full of colour. Mood and depth of feeling are the core of her work.

"I take my inspiration from nature, whether the colour of the inside of a cornflower or the light and colour in the sky at dawn and dusk," she says. "My works are abstract in the main, but I also like to produce figure paintings where what the ladies in my paintings are thinking is left to the beholder to decide. Happy or sad? You decide."

Peter, on the other hand, is more conventional. His passion is for boats, in particular traditional barges on the Thames, and his works are executed in watercolour and pen and ink. No wishy-washy colours here, however.

"I like my colours to be strong and I love the way that the light changes the colours," he says.

Colour and The Sea runs until the new year and all works are for sale.

Updated: 09:36 Friday, December 12, 2003