CHIAROSCURO – the Renaissance oil painting technique that uses light and shade to make three-dimensional shapes leap dramatically off the canvas.

Wantage artist Stuart Roper has mastered the technique to bring some of his favourite Oxfordshire beauty spots to light.

He is exhibiting his results at the town's Vale and Downland Museum this month in a show he has called 'Scattered Light'.

Mr Roper explained: "My work is becoming more about the time of day and the seasons than about a specific place. I can paint the same scene many times and still find new colours and perspectives.

"In these latest pieces I look at the relationships between coloured marks on the canvas."

Scattered light runs at the Vale and Downland Museum on Church Street until September 29. Admission is free.