A 15-YEAR association between a Truro couple and a leading South West firm of solicitors has been marked in artistic fashion.

Paul and Elaine Stephens appointed Exeter-based Bevan Ashford in 1988 for the prospectus launch of their first Business Expansion Scheme (BES) company.

They continued to work together in subsequent BES launches, which eventually amounted to £18million of shareholders' funds and 230 houses across the whole of southern England.

The link was strengthened in 1996 with the launch by Mr Stephens and Gerry Barnicoat of Poltair Homes, the Truro-based property developer.

Now, as a special 15th anniversary 'thank-you' present, Mr Stephens hit on the novel idea of utilising the skills of Isles of Scilly-based artist Sue Lewington, illustrator of the brochures promoting Poltair Homes' sites, and commissioned her to produce pen and watercolour portraits of nine senior legal team members involved with Poltair Homes, working from head-and-shoulders photographs supplied by the firm.

The nine were then framed together for a single master print, with copies presented to them by Poltair Homes.

'We decided on a "thank-you" gesture with a difference to let them see just how much we appreciate their services,' said Mr Stephens.

'In particular, Elaine and I will never forget how Martin Thornton, the partner I first dealt with, was so keen that his firm should work for us.

'Our merchant bankers felt that only a firm in the City of London could handle our BES business, but we preferred the idea of appointing a West Country practice.

'As a solicitor myself, I had a pretty good idea of which firms would have the breadth of expertise, and so I wrote to ten such practices and arrived at a short list of three.

'Of these, Bevan Ashford were streets ahead of the rest in their enthusiasm for the job, with obviously high calibre staff.

'This gave us and our merchant bank the confidence to select them. Since then we - and, we like to think, they - have never looked back.'

The year 1988 was also the year in which Bevan Ashford was established in its present form, with the amalgamation of Devon-based Ashford Sparkes and Howards with Bevan Hancock of Bristol.

Now, with more than 80 partners and 600 members of staff, the firm has seven offices across the country in Plymouth, Exeter, Taunton, Tiverton, Bristol, Birmingham and London.

Painting members of their legal team was something of a departure from the norm for Ms Lewington, who is better known for her sketch books of West Country scenes.

She published the first of these - sketches of Scilly - six years ago and there are now 12 in the series.

Before moving to St Martin's, she lived in West Penwith and taught at the Penzance Art School.

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Dateline: Friday, May 2, 2003