t might not appear obvious at first, but each of the oil paintings that Oxford artist Luke Skiffington is exhibiting at the Mary Ogilvie Art Gallery informs and affects the next. Many of his moody pictures take us into the flattened foliage of a world in which strange and bleeding heads lurk, waiting to be discovered. Others present us with the head, which waits to be moved into another picture. These pictures should not to be viewed in a hurry. They demand you give them time, just as Luke gives them time. He admits that he works on several canvases at once, but may not necessarily be placing paint on upon paint. He spends much of his time just watching and waiting for the picture to speak to him .

The heads begin as observations or photographs, which are then changed and finished with thinned paints that bleed down the canvas, portraying tears. In the new paintings at the core of this show, the foliage patters become more artificial — arrangements of branches are tagged with stencil-shapes, but weeping faces still emerge, though they are not necessarily images of the green man.

Luke studied at Goldsmiths and Chelsea colleges of art and has won the Neville Burston Award for most outstanding young artist and first prize in the West Midlands Open. He has recently won another prize with New Greenham Arts and has a London Show running concurrently with this one at 125 Old Broad Street, which suggests that he is entering his breakthrough year.

He is certainly an interesting artist to follow, as his work continues to progress and his ideas expand. Those wishing to view Luke’s exhibition, En Plein Air, are advised to telephone the college lodge on 01865 274800, to confirm that the gallery is open to visitors at the time they plan to visit.