Elm Hill Contemporary Art

The eye-catching pieces in the gallery window ought rouse the interest of even the most die-hard traditionalist.

Rosalind Stoddart uses an almost sculptural technique to create Affirmation, an exciting oil and carborundum piece that draws the viewer into the space between the deep blue semi circles.

Mardi gras, an exotically-curved plexiglas sculpture by Polly Cruse, lures passers-by with its bubble-laden lime luminescence, contrasting the density of cast aluminium balls with transparent faceted twists.

Jack Crampton conjures chaos with pleasing consequences, interrupting the colour collision course with an irregular punctured circle in Perferotic – Broken Circle.

Yet more engaging work waits inside, I was particularly enamoured of Muralis by Elizabeth Humphries.

Constructed from layers of paper painstakingly built up and then deliberately brutalised to great effect.

The scrapping away of the earthy surface sheen exposes tantalising glimpses of vibrant colour beneath.

Its scored lines and a significantly-aligned orange triangle gives the work real dynamism.

Continuing her exploration of the fritillary lily, Pauline Aitken combines a fluid chromium-plated steel shape, inspired by the underside of a petal, with embedded fused glass. The effect is reminiscent of examining this botanical delight under a microscope.

The mixed media work by Eleanor Wood entitled Division & Displacement 2 has a subtle quality, evoking the distortion of sunlight through slatted blinds.

And yet more ethereal were some seemingly empty frames, which actually contained the most fragile pieces of perforated paper.

Dismissive of Tracy Williams' barely-there works, as they captured the light I was forced to acknowledge their beautiful simplicity.