A new art gallery has opened its doors at Roskilly's organic dairy farm on the Lizard Peninsula.

Coast Colour Canvas – art inspired by Cornwall – was officially launched during a special preview evening when the farming family’s matriarch, Rachel Roskilly, cut a ribbon to declare the gallery open.

The farm is renowned for its ice cream and the gallery is situated in the original ice cream parlour, which has undergone a major refurbishment over the last few months.

Coast Colour Canvas is the brainchild of three artists based on the Lizard – Jenny Field, Fiona Foster and Janet Golden.

They are all members of Coverack Art Society and the idea for a permanent gallery emerged following two successful pop-up exhibitions they staged in the village last year.

The aim is not only to showcase their own work, but also to provide an affordable exhibition space for the many other artists based in and around the Lizard.

A full guest artist programme has been lined up for the coming months.

Thanking both the Roskilly family for their support in enabling the venture to go ahead and the guest artists for committing to the project, Fiona Foster told the packed gallery on Thursday: “We hope to create a little bit of an artistic community over the next months and, hopefully, years ahead.”

Special guest at the gallery launch was one of the area’s best-known painters and teachers, Janet Judge, from the Trelowarren-based Lizard Art co-operative.

“There are so many artists around and so many galleries have closed that I think this is really brilliant,” she said, adding: “It looks absolutely fantastic – it’s going to be really, really popular.”

Coast Colour Canvas is open from 11am to 4pm, seven days a week, until the end of October.

More information can be found by e-mailing coastcolourcanvas@gmail.com.