W hen you enter Ray Gray's small but delicate little antique shop, you cross the threshold into a rich world. Ray, an expert on the antiques of the Orient, is a genial and natural guide and a cheerful raconteur.

The Magic Box, which fits snugly into market town of Bridport, seems to be a natural vocation for a man whose life has been driven by art. Colourful pictures of his garden, painted with an assured hand and hanging behind bronze figures and Chinese plates, are fine examples of his skill as an artist.

And his passion for antiques is clear in the stories he can relate behind each object.

Ray was inspired by the famous painter John Piper, at whose home and studio he shared many a convivial meal around the kitchen table while works of international artists were casually displayed on the walls and hung from the ceilings. He can even recall the layout of the beautifully designed garden, all of which nurtured Ray to later become an art teacher.

Stories and colour continue in Ray's home life. His wife Paula and 18-year-old daughter Ziggy are both actresses. Paula is a familiar face in Casualty, playing various characters including a resus nurse called ... Paula Gray.

Her other work includes appearances in period dramas such as Lark Rise to Candleford, Tess of the D'Urbervilles and Persuasion. Mother and daughter have worked together on episodes of Dr Who and Torchwood.

It was the Nick Berry TV drama Harbour Lights, filmed at nearby West Bay, which gave Paula her first taste of what was to become a new career. She responded – rather reluctantly – to an appeal for locals to take part, and enjoyed the work so much that she decided to contact an agent.

She has since had roles in Casualty for more than eight years, and was delighted to play a part in the latest Batman film The Dark Knight.

She says: "I can be doing a bloody scrub-up for Casualty one day and be dressing up in corsets and hats the next. Most of the time, I have to be up at 4am to drive to the studio. For the latest Batman film, I had to be at Elstree at 5am and they were 12-hour days.

"I played a reporter in the scenes where the Joker is going to blow up the ferry. It's so interesting to be doing different things all the time with different people."

The Grays' cottage is a stone's throw from the Magic Box in East Street, and the cottage garden is the principal subject of Ray's oil paintings and water colours.

Among the rioitous colour and dappled shade is Ray's studio where big canvases are displayed, including one showing John Piper's Georgian house at night in deep, rich blues.

One of Ray's best works features the garden covered in thick snow, the paint applied in strong deep strokes in contrast to the subtle and delicate irises in another of his paintings.

Ray's love of painting began as a child, and runs in the family. He says: "My older brother studied at the Royal College of Art and advised me to get some work together and try to get into college.

"I was short-sighted and dyslexic and you usually needed A-levels to get into college, but luckily Maidenhead College said I could go because of my standard of painting.

"I started at 16 rather than 18, which was rare, and I did do A-levels while I was there.

"Starting early meant I got my degree at 21 when most people didn't finish until they were 24."

When he left, he taught art at a school two days a week and also restored painted furniture for half-a-dozen shops in Eton.

Later, he moved to Cornwall, where he ran a school at Fowey and stayed with the Manchester-born painter Fred Yates, renowned for his vivid, Lowry-esque scenes of street life.

"He used his hand as a palette, and was such a good man who wanted to share what he had learned," Ray recalls.

Ray went on to teach art at Theale Grammar School for 18 years, ending as head of department. His former students are now artists all over the world.

Ray's love of antiques also started young, and his knowledge grew while he was studying for his degree and drawing objects in the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.

"The people in the specialist departments in those days were incredibly generous. If you showed interest they would tell you so much about these beautiful things and would allow you to handle the objects.

"I was able to hold things that were hundreds of years old and priceless."

His knowledge of antiques led him to present a popular local radio antiques programme in the south of England for 14 years.

Ray's current life is a rich mix of his lifelong interests, and he has time to paint again.

"I stopped painting for a long time because I was teaching full time," he says.

"Now my painting has come full circle. I love light – and painting what I see."