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This was the first time that husband and wife Sue and Alan Mynall had exhibited together. Sue's work was shown in the comfortable surroundings of their home and Alan's in his business-like studio, where there is also an opportunity to see him working. Their partnership has produced substantially different bodies of work. Sue describes her delicate and lively paintings, drawings and illustrations as having "a flavour of a bygone age". In addition to producing her own originals, Sue has helped others less talented to do the same. She designed the Lollipop Stamps, sold in aid of Douglas and Helen House. These rubber stamps each have an outline image of a child or friendly, old-fashioned adult, and the resulting imprints are ready for people to add their own colour and detail.

Sue's first love is book illustration and this month sees the publication of her first book of illustrations. She has provided the artwork for the poem A Crazy Day at the Zoo by Leanne Hallam, published by Running Hare Press. The poem and the illustration take us through the zoo and the antics of both animals and people, including those of a well-rounded chipmunk eating a giant banana while watching the unlikely but engaging sight of a pair of tap dancing llamas.

Alan, like Sue, has painted and drawn all his life. He works in a wide range of media. He is a well-established portrait artist, having completed a number of commissions over the years, and examples of his portraits are on show in his studio, including Royalist Pike Man, an engaging picture of a neighbour, his bright 21st-century face atop his full Sealed Knot costume.

He has also completed a number of murals; many people will remember his fantasy mural in the courtyard behind The Brewhouse in central Oxford (now the Red Lion once more), of a castle complete with M.C.Esher impossibilities and strong Oxford references. Regrettably, it was painted over in magnolia by the pub's later owners. Alan's current body of work draws inspiration from Radley and Bagley woods, the woods which surround his home and studio. He is in the process of completing an as yet untitled quartet of panels of the same view, one for each of the four seasons. The autumn panel is done, winter is complete and spring and summer are to follow. Each panel is large and unusually three times longer than it is high. The shape of the panel provides a frame - almost like the view from a hide - which allows one to engage fully in the strength and sheer beauty of the trees, their sinuous trunks and exuberant foliage.

2:49pm Wednesday 14th May 2008

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