Inspired by the fantastic, very urban, harbourside view from our Bristol gallery, we asked a number of our artists if they would like to give us work based on the city.

Cityscapes are often fascinating, constantly changing, and are perhaps even more affected than landscapes by subtle changes in light. London, Paris, Melbourne, Tokyo, New York, Edinburgh, Prague, Florence and Glasgow are all represented.

This exhibition brings together exciting new work from gallery favourites, Judith I Bridgland, Sylvia Paul, David Porteous Butler, David Smith RSW, Peter Wileman PPROI, RSMA, EAGMA, FRSA, and sees a welcome, and long overdue, return by Zanna Wilson.

Judith I Bridgland was born in 1962 in Australia, and trained in Glasgow, Scotland. She became an Elected Artist Member of the Paisley Art Institute in 1997.

Her bold, colourful Scottish landscapes have led to exhibitions in Scotland, London and the rest of the UK as well as further afield in America, Russia and Sweden.

Working in oils, bold, vigorous rhythmical strokes of impasto paint reflect nature’s contrasts and harmonies. The ever-changing light illuminates fields, mountains, hedgerows and the sea, with the expanse of the natural forms contrasting with complex abstraction to give a strong sense of place.

Judith’s work can be found in the collections of The Royal Bank of Scotland, British Midland, The University of Strathclyde, Glasgow Caledonian University.

Her work is held in private collections in England, Ireland, France, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, the Netherlands, Turkey, Mexico, Canada, USA, Bermuda, Australia, Hong Kong and the United Arab Emirates.

Sylvia Paul studied painting at Colchester School of Art and Hockerill College of Education. She has been exhibiting in East Anglia for over 20 years and has held numerous solo exhibitions.

Although many of her paintings are inspired by the coast, her subject matter covers a broad spectrum. Recently her Japan inspired abstracts have attracted particular interest, one of them being hung in The Royal Academy Summer Exhibition 2009.

She has held two solo exhibitions in Japan and in 2013 at her exhibition at Gallery Sakura, Nagoaka, 36 paintings were sold in three days.

Other successes include being accepted for open exhibitions with The Pastel Society. The Royal Institute of Oil Painters, The Laing Landscape Exhibition and most recently The Royal Institute of Water Colour Artists where two of her landscape collages were exhibited.

Two of Sylvia’s paintings are in the Norwich Union Art Collection and her work is in many private collections in the UK and abroad.

David Porteous-Butler’s work reveals an honest and direct affinity with his subject that is driven by his love of the natural world. He has a passion for the vitality of the landscape and changing light around him. Suffolk provides much inspiration and the English countryside is a true love, although he has also worked extensively in Southern Europe including time in France and Italy. Working with a limited palette, he is always faithful to the truth in what he sees.

David studied in London under the late Sir Kyffin Williams RA and Anthony Green RA before being offered a place at the Royal College of Art.

David’s work is in collections in the UK, France, Italy and the USA.

In 2012 David was privileged to be one of twenty artists invited by the BBC to the Millennium Bridge on the day of the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee pageant to paint the scene on the river.

David Smith was born in Dunbartonshire in 1957 and he still lives and works in the area. Many years of hill walking, mountaineering and rock climbing in the Scottish Highlands has instilled a clear sense of the outdoors that is recreated in his paintings.

He has studied at various local colleges, including the Glasgow School of Art and the Glasgow Print Studio. He also spent a number of years in Australia where he studied life drawing at La Trobe University and Monash House. Around this time he travelled extensively in South East Asia, India and the Nepal Himalaya, giving him the opportunity to paint alternative landscapes. On returning to Scotland he quickly rediscovered his passion for painting what he is widely recognised for - the seaboards and landscapes of Scotland.

David is a past president of The Glasgow Group of Artists. He was awarded the David Cargill prize at the 2001 RGI annual exhibition, the Winsor and Newton award at the 2009 RSW annual exhibition, the Adam Award at the 2010 Paisley Art Institute annual exhibition and the James B. Curr Award at the 2011 Paisley Art Institute annual exhibition. He was also short listed for the Inverarity One to One Travel Award for the 2010 RGI Annual Exhibition. David has exhibited at the RSW, RGI, RSA and PAI annual exhibitions and exhibits regularly at other prominent galleries in the UK.

David was elected a member of the Royal Scottish Society of Painters in Watercolour (RSW) in November 2011.

He also has paintings in Glasgow Caledonian University and Fielden House, House of Lords, London.

Peter Wileman was born in Middlesex in 1946. He is a Past President and a Fellow of the Royal Institute of Oil Painters, a Member of the Royal Society of Marine Artists and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. He has worked in the field of art and design for over forty years.

Peter’s style is bold and vigorous, both in the use of colour and handling of paint, as he explores the effect of light on his subject. Seeking atmosphere through light and colour, he works in varying degrees of abstraction.

Peter has won many awards for his paintings including: The Frank Herring Award in 2000; The Cornelissen & Son Award in 2003 ; The Clerc Fowle' gold medal in 2006; The DAS Prize in 2007 and The Charles Pears Award in 2010

Peter's paintings can be found in private collections worldwide and have been shown on television.

Publications include: Painting the Light in Oils DVD released in 2008 by Townhouse Films; Inspirational Oil Landscapes DVD released in 2010 by Townhouse Films and ‘Painting Light in Oils’ , a book published by Anova, 2011.

Zanna Wilson, born of Scottish parents in Salisbury in 1978, took a foundation course at Winchester School of Art, and has lived and worked in Scotland for all her adult life.

Graduating with an MA from Edinburgh University in 2001, Zanna kept her passion for painting and after working in a gallery for three years, she committed herself to painting full time.

At Leith School of art she learnt to paint with beeswax and the main part of her work is in this medium with raw ground pigments and sometimes mixed with oil.

Zanna has had public exhibitions at the Society of Scottish Artists; The Royal Scottish Academy; The Royal Glasgow Institute; the Paisley Art Institute at the Paisley Museum.

She has become a highly collectible artist in recent years and her work is held in private collections in the U.K., America, France, South Africa and New Zealand.

“I have lived and worked in Scotland since 1997 and am hugely excited by the special light and changing atmosphere experienced here. Scotland's rich variety of landscapes and wildlife provides a wealth of inspiration and I approach my work experimentally, reducing it to its essentials, one painting or ceramic being the starting point for the next. In my paintings I use primarily raw ground colour pigments, beeswax, oil, shellacs and ink. The beeswax is used by melting it down and using sometimes neat with raw pigments or by preparing an emulsion made up of beeswax and pure gum turpentine. This is a highly durable material to use and one that has been around as a form of art since the Egyptians.”