SCORES of art lovers attended the opening of a new contemporary art gallery in the New Forest.

Owner and artist Simon Jillians, helped by organiser Carol Dunning, has opened the New Forest Contemporary Art Gallery in Lyndhurst High Street to bring modern art to the traditional Forest.

Exhibiting with fellow local artists such as Jeanne Moles and Frances Mason, he hopes the gallery will provide a link to the kind of art usually found in London.

He said: "It's a refreshing gallery showing contemporary art by some of the area's most talented artists."