© Tracey Saunders

Exhibition preview: Fourteen at Naze Tower, Essex, from May 17 until July 13 2008.

Bright palettes combined with a sense of light and space are the running thread through a cheerful new exhibition at Naze Tower, Walton-on-the-Naze.

Landscape painting and photography, plus works in other media by 14 artists from East Anglia are on show over the Tower's six floors this summer, taking in sculpture, jewellery, textiles and prints.

Four artists have solo shows, taking up a floor each, with an emphasis on photography and landscape painting.

© Rob Woolf

Tracy Saunders' work is inspired by the Eastern seaboard, which she says means everything to her.

“I sketch on location in muddy creeks, untidy boatyards and when it gets too cold in shipwrights' boatsheds," she says. "I then recreate a scene in watercolour once back in the studio and use the impressions left on my memory to fill any gaps.”

S Doran also paints watercolour landscapes, while David Britton has been painting East Anglian scenes in oils for 35 years.

Rob Woolf specialises in photographing water, producing stunning images of the coastline and estuaries of north Essex and south Suffolk. He often takes them from a kayak, giving a new perspective on these views.

© Lina Hunter

Rob's favourite spots at the moment are Wrabness, Little Oakley and Walton-on-the-Naze.

“My favourite images convey a sense of space," says Rob. "I often choose to shoot in wide angle to capture the vastness and expansiveness of the East Anglian sky and to this effect I like to go out on changeable days in order to catch cloud formations and the light that hits them."

"I'm also often out a couple of hours after the sun has disappeared in order to capture the deep blues, reds and purples of the sky once the sun has dropped under the horizon.”

© Dawn Hall

In the varied, mixed show downstairs, featuring ten artists, visitors will find ceramic sculptures of fish, birds and wild animals by Lina Hunter, funky silver jewellery by Jodie Evans and felt flower sculptures by Nicky Wallace.

Photography by Trevor Clifford shows the Hamford Waters nature reserve visible from the Tower's upper levels, and Dawn Hall is showing paintings and prints inspired by the Naze.

Aeron Hall-Apps has also created retro-chic, handmade accessories, and Rory Craigie offers his functional thrown ceramics.

Popular watercolourist James Merriott depicts historic local buildings, and a new body of work by photographers Nigel Pepper and Alan Bedding portraying the area's coast is also on show.

This is an exhibition preview. If you've been to see the show, why not let us know what you think?