WEIR Quay Boatyard has released for sale its widely anticipated 2010 Plymouth and South West Region Tide Tables, this year featuring the work of acclaimed Devon-based watercolourist Rob Dudley.

He was commissioned in the summer to create new work in order to provide an exciting and original cover and inside illustrations for the otherwise utilitarian book of hydrographic predictions.

Rob Dudley has lived in South Devon with his wife, Sian, also an artist, for more than 25 years and has exhibited widely in galleries throughout Devon and Cornwall.

He said he was thrilled with the commission: 'It was the perfect project for me; everything that makes me a painter is at Weir Quay, from the ordered rhythm of the traditional boatyard to the many moods of the river. It was a welcome opportunity to paint in a stunning location.'

Mike Hooton, the proprietor of the boatyard, said: 'Rob just loves mud, and beached boats and riverbeds and mooring lines, and we have all of those in abundance here at Weir Quay.

'His ability to capture the light and its reflections in water as well as the fleeting shimmering of rock-pools and estuary mud and sand is sublime.'

For ten years the yard has produced its own tide tables and for the last four it has commissioned new work from a local painter.

The idea for the tide table paintings originally came from Tavistock artist Ian Heard, who was brought up in a Cornwall boatyard and published the popular book 'Classic Boats of the West Country'. Ian illustrated the cover for the 2007 tables and continues to design the tables from his graphics studios, Heard's Design Partnership, also in Tavistock.

Plymouth artist Richard Allman followed Ian in 2008, and in 2009 local artist Rita Smith produced a strong intense image of Weir Quay boats in red and blue for the cover.

The popularity of the Weir Quay Tide Tables was demonstrated in September 2008, when the boatyard converted its workshed into a gallery. More than 1,200 people came to see an exhibition of work by the first three tide table artists, entitled 'Watching the River Flow'.

The Weir Quay Boatyard Tide Tables will be distributed to all members of sailing and yacht clubs on the River Tamar and are available from all good local bookshops. For more details visit: http://www.weir-quay.com">www.weir-quay.com