This exhibition of paintings by Pamela Franklin, Addy Gardner, Neil Drury, Margaret Charlton and Will Cotterill creates a wonderful sense of light and hope at this, the darkest time of year. Halcyon, the mythical bird was said to have had this effect on brooding weather.

Two of the artists on show— Franklin and Cotterill — use gesso, a long- established way of preparing surfaces and substrata as a base to paint over.

There are many forms of gesso in current use. Franklin and Cotterill both use the traditional form.

Franklin gives details of her gesso ‘recipe’ (it dates from 1390). She boils up rabbit skin glue, chalk and white pigment. And it is on the gesso base that images are built up layer by layer. In Embers, which is pictured above, Franklin uses the technique to make a set of six small panels each positively pulsating with colours that capture the intensity and energy of flame, heat and light.

Cotterill, on the other hand, severely restricts his palette. Working in a Rembrandtian tradition, he creates intense, almost brooding, scenes in which light, colour and form compete with and ultimately overwhelm the physical subject matter.

Addy Gardner’s oils on canvas are consistently uplifting and optimistic. Typically she creates a dense foreground to a picture from which sky-scapes, cloud formations and atmosphere positively soar.

Margaret Charlton uses her long experience as an embroiderer to inform her pieces in gouache and ink. Her Tide series in sea greens and oceanic blues are tenderly minimal, with brush strokes retaining the delicacy of stitching.

Neil Drury uses oil and pastels to create exuberant pieces.

In Flowers with Rose Moon a cornucopia of gorgeous flowers explode out of a sedentary jug.

The exhibition is taking place at Art Jericho, which is at 6 King Street, Oxford, OX2 6DF. The gallery is open daily from Wednesday to Saturday and on Sunday afternoon. It continues to December 23.