WENSLEYDALE artist Sonia Lawson has given a painting to the Mercer Gallery in Harrogate which is currently showing her latest exhibition, Paintings, Passions and Alarms.

Ms Lawson, daughter of Dales artists Fred Lawson and Muriel Metcalfe, grew up in Castle Bolton and is the only artist from the Dales ever to be elected a Royal Academician.

Her donation of Teatime at Haworth with the Brontes, painted in 1981, is apt in the bicentenary year of Charlotte Bronte's birth. The picture is one of three in the exhibition inspired by the Brontes and a visit she made to the parsonage at Haworth where they lived.

The high colour reflects her feelings reading Bronte novels and her own childhood recollections of gatherings of artists, poets and academics at her parents' cottage.

Jane Sellars, director, said: “This is a hugely important painting for the Mercer collection. Sonia Lawson is a major Yorkshire artist and also we have a policy of collecting work by outstanding women artists.

“For me personally, the Bronte theme is very special, both for the Yorkshire association and the achievements of women writers. I was for seven years the director of the Bronte Parsonage Museum at Haworth and I wrote a great deal about the art made by the Brontes themselves.”

The exhibition continues until February 7, sponsored by Tennants of Leyburn.