Although the exhibition of oil paintings by James F. Lynch at the Mary Ogilvy Gallery Gallery, in St Anne’s College, is entitled Children of the Medina, many of the works depict the colourful, crumbling buildings of Larache.

This ancient fishing port 50 miles north of Tangier is where the artist lives for part of the year. He gravitates there because of the intense light that enhances the colourful buildings, and for the restaurants that serve fish straight from the sea, and the children who cry out for him to paint them when they spot him sketching.

His beautifully observed architectural studies are executed with a draughtsmanly precision and the colours that dominate his canvases are beautifully toned.

The many pictures in which he has captured the human form add a further dimension to his work, which takes us inside fish restaurants and through the crowded streets of Larache.

Visitors might notice that the customers in the Fishermen’s Restaurant are eating with their fingers, as is the local custom, and that they jostle together as if attending a party at which food has been served.

As with all his figurative works, it is a very jolly picture, depicting local people who, over the years, have become his friends.

Blue is the dominant colour in all his works, and not just because the sky and the sea are blue. James has used a deep cerulean shade of blue to recreate the painted surfaces of the doors, windows, shutters, grilles and many other surfaces within the town that are painted blue. Several of the figures in his paintings wear blue too.

There are a few works that have been painted in the UK, including a beautiful study of his aged mother and the garden at the back of his home.

This superb exhibition, which celebrates colour on every canvas, continues until December 15.