A MAJOR new exhibition celebrating the British portrait tradition is set to open in Salisbury later this year.

As You See Me – British Portraiture: A Living Tradition opens at Salisbury Museum on May 2 and runs until September 27.

It is a new and original exhibition that highlights a studio practice called sight-size, where the canvas is placed alongside the sitter so that both appear the same size when viewed together from a given distance. It was a technique used by artists such as Sir Joshua Reynolds, Thomas Gainsborough, George Romney, Henry Raeburn, John Hoppner,Sir Thomas Lawrence and John Singer Sargent - among others - have paintings introducing the exhibition.

Bringing the sight-size tradition up to date, the exhibition will showcase the work of Salisbury-based portrait painter Nicholas Beer.

Nick was a senior teacher at the Charles Cecil Studio in Florence from 1992 through to 2012.