Artist Janette Jagger celebrates her 70th year with an exhibition portraying her love of the coast, her love of travelling, and her lifelong love of painting.

The exhibition, titled A Lifetime of Painting, opens at Kingsbridge's Harbour House on Tuesday 26 February.

Born far from the sea at Broken Hill in the Australian desert, which she describes affectionately as "a mining town in the middle of nowhere", Janette spent her early years in a landscape of hot, bright colours.

These colours have left a permanent impression, infusing all of her art work with a vivid palette. From an early age, trips to the coast were special to Janette, and it's no surprise that it's become an enduring theme in her art work.

Throughout her life she has travelled and exhibited widely, painting the people and the landscapes of Brazil, Europe and Africa, as well as the South Hams, where she has now settled.

Painting the holidaymakers on Bantham beach has become something of a tradition for Janette, and she is well known for her charming paintings of the Westcountry in inks, watercolours, gouache and acrylic.

Paintings of Cornwall, which is starting to feel a bit like Janette's second home as she travels around in her camper van, will be a particular feature of this year's exhibition, alongside paintings from her most recent travels in France and Spain.

Janette will talk more about her travels, and how they have inspired her lively paintings, in an informal gallery talk at 12 noon on Thursday 28 February. Everybody is welcome, and admission is free.

"New places inspire new ways of painting," says Janette, and she allows the scene to dictate the medium and the technique. After a few years' break, she has taken up her oil paints with renewed vigour, finding their colour and texture perfect for local scenes in Devon and Cornwall.

Watercolour, too, is ideal for some of these coastal paintings, particularly her series looking down on the boats in the harbour at Mevagissey. "Not the posh boats," she says, "but the ones with more character."

Acrylic paints, meanwhile, were just right for the fiery red earth of the Australian desert, while gouache offers its light, chalky quality to the bright daylight of Brazil.

Janette's exhibition runs from Tuesday 26 February until Sunday 2 March.