St Ives itself is the subject of the summer exhibition at the Porthminster Gallery, as the town welcomes its summer holiday visitors.

None of the artists taking part in the exhibition live in the town, but they all visited to create special work for the gallery.

The quirky mix of paintings and ceramics include Nick Bodimeade's enigmatic scenes of sunbathers on Porthminster beach, the figures slightly pixelated as though on a screen.

And children in old-fashioned swimming costumes frolic in the sea in Ann Winder Boyle's nostalgic Forever Young, with a view of St Ives harbour in the background, painted from the gallery window.

Ann, whose work has four times been selected for the prestigious Royal Academy exhibition in London, bases her work on children's adventure stories of yesteryear, but often gives them a subversive twist.

In one image in the exhibition, the wholesome-looking boy and girl are seen climbing out of a cottage window with a stolen radio, a touch of edginess among the sunny beach scenes.

Ann is a new exhibitor at the Porthminster. "It is quite a coup for us to show her work, because she is very, very successful in London," says gallery owner David Durham.

Beach and harbour scenes appear on ceramics in the exhibition too. Helen Beard draws outline sketches on her hand-thrown porcelain, which she then fills in with a wash of colour to produce an appearance of watercolour and ink.

"We've been showing Helen's work for three years, and before we have always had more general Cornish scenes of boats, but these are specifically of St Ives," says David.

"In this body of work she has lots more detail, there are people relaxing on the beach, people in deckchairs and individual shops and buildings, things like the Sloop Inn and lovely vistas with Porthmeor Beach and the Tate."

The naive art tradition, which dates back to the fisherman-painter Alfred Wallis in St Ives, can be seen in Anne Davies' abstracts of cottages clustered around the harbour, with windows and other details scratched through the paint. The sea is evoked in single lines of intense colour, meanwhile, in Elly Walls' raggedy-edged vessels.

David, who runs the gallery with partner Dee Lee Calvert, said they wanted to encourage artists living elsewhere to create work in St Ives.

"We don't really need to encourage them anymore," he says. "Most of them have really taken to the whole subject, and in many cases it has given them a new lease of life. This show celebrates originality and offers a slightly different take on St Ives than you often get in galleries in the town, where it is all very traditional. We like to celebrate that vision of place that is unique to each artist. That is what this show is really about."