A JOINT artists' exhibition themed around colour and clay can be viewed at Lyme Regis's Town Mill.

East Devon artists Elizabeth Richie and Ali Herbert will be displaying paintings and ceramics that are organic in nature and material.

The exhibition will run until April 12 in the town mill's Courtyard Gallery.

Elizabeth explores the elements of water and earth in a striking new series of paintings, and Ali produces stoneware and porcelain pottery that reflect her love of simple forms.

Explaining how her paintings evolve, Elizabeth 'likes to allow the free movement of marks and colours in my paintings to emerge as images, some remaining abstract while others could be interpreted as landscapes.'

While her last exhibition focused on large charcoal drawings inspired by her career as a dancer, her recent work continues to involve this fundamental play of light and movement, but with a difference. Now she is more excited to explore the happy accidents that occur when marks and colours dance together, perhaps in a similar way to improvised dance or music. As she says, 'it is the energy of the unexpected that delights me.'

Working from her studio in Colyton, Ali Herbert makes modern rural pots predominantly for use, rather than as objects of art.

Inspired by the techniques of ceramicist Bernard Leach, she trained as a production potter and enjoys all aspects of the repetitive making process as it focuses her attention at every stage. She enjoys refining similar forms over the course of throwing and values the slightest nuance that can offer a fresh take on a familiar design.

Ali’s firing skill and knowledge of glazes put the pots through their final test in the kiln where colour changes to the clay and glazes and even their place in the kiln give a slight difference to the glazed pots so that every one is unique.

*Colour & Clay is open daily from 10.30am to 4.30pm, admission is free, and more details can be found at the website townmillarts.co.uk