Romsey Art Group members have been bird watching it seems.

The group’s autumn exhibition, which opens this week, features a flock of our feathered friends.

Wildlife has always been a popular subject for the artists and there’s still a few big cats, horses and cows to be seen but it’s the birds that rule the roost at the Mountbatten Gallery this time round.

Poultry are particular favourites. Regular Jenny Morgan has created a jaunty cockerel collage (as well as a selection of fine miniatures depicting a kingfisher, sparrow and great tit) and Rosalind Jelbert has produced a striking, lifelike Chicken in acrylics – its beady eye seems to follow you round the room.

Away from the chicken run Jill Mitchell’s skillful pencil also brings birds to life in Wrens and Gone Fishing (another kingfisher study). Nuthatches, puffins, geese and even a toucan can also be found.

Brooding landscapes also abound in this show. Darkest of all is the Cliff Brown’s Homey Ridge 15, a good portion of which is completely black. More traditional is long-time member Joy Dickens’ oil Autumn Path – a simple but effective composition depicting a solitary tree in a heathland landscape. If you want creepy Roland Q. Paris’ Fallen Giant is an atmospheric work which focuses on the gnarled and twisted limbs of a fallen tree – it could have come straight out of a 19th century book of Grimm’s Fairytales.

As usual the RAG artists have employed a variety of media and technique s but we don’t often see fumage in which impressions are made by the smoke of a candle or kerosene lamp on a piece of paper or canvas. Alison Windell has used this technique to provide the backgrounds for her charcoal studies – the most effective of which is Midnight Wolf.

There are slightly fewer pictures in this exhibition that in previous shows but that’s not a bad thing as the walls are not quite so crammed. The sculptors, carvers, potters and ceramicists have been busy and there are plenty of 3D works to see. Prominent among these are Robin Macmillan who makes a return with his cheery, multi-coloured art deco-style vases in geometric shapes.

The exhibition runs at Mountbatten Gallery, from tomorrow (Saturday) until May 16 and is open from 10am to 5pm each day.

AR