Born in 1937, Atkins' studied at Bromley College of Art during the late 50's and then at the Slade where he began to develop a visual language derived from working on a large scale from direct observation. Moving to Cornwall in 1974 he continued to evolve his unique and extraordinary method of painting by erecting structures in the landscape to hold the large boards in place. Left out in the landscape, often for weeks on end and in the most extreme conditions of weather, the outcome of his battles with the elements are paintings that vibrate with an energetic touch and a true feeling for the experience of the natural world.

With a keen awareness of the rhythm of the seasons and a belief in the power of the artist to reveal the beauty and emotional power of a landscape scarred by human activity, his sites include the slopes of Carn Marth outside Redruth, Cornwall's last working tin mine at South Crofty, the china clay pits around St Austell and a new site, Littlejohns Pit, the highest point on Bodmin Moor, which he describes as …"spectacular, yet disturbing in its vastness with so many points of activity which are always changing,… The shifting light, the changing form, the bursts of activity in unexpected places with no likelihood of ever discovering any focal points. I began to see a painting with endless churning rhythms, sometimes petering out to nothing, other times making surprise forays and unexpected links - the vast pointlessness of life, yet also a magic beauty."

Also included in the exhibition are the paintings made on the site of the disused Wheal Jane Mine near Truro that finally closed in 1998. Made over a period of eighteen-months the paintings record his response to the mine for the Broken Ground project. A project that brought together Peter Redgrove's poetry, the music of composer Paul Hancock and the paintings of Ray Atkins' in a four day celebration about the mine's derelict and haunting evocation of Cornwall's industrial history which was held at the mine during Easter 2001.

Throughout his career Atkins' work has been included in prestigious public exhibitions including a solo-exhibition at the Whitechapel Gallery in 1974. He has shown regularly in London with Art Space Gallery since 1989, he was honoured with a major retrospective exhibition at the Royal West of England Academy in 1996 and had solo exhibitions in key public galleries in England and Ireland. His work is held in the permanent collections of the Arts Council, British Council and the British Museum and is included in many prestigious private collections in the UK, Germany and USA.