lthough Icelandic artist Karolina Larusdottir lives in Cambridge, she regularly exhibits in Oxford. This is not just because she studied art at the Ruskin School of Art in the 1960s – her work is well respected here. She has many faithful followers in Oxford.

Though she has lived in the UK for 50 years, Karolina’s work is rooted in Iceland. Her grandfather was the owner of the first grand hotel in Reykjavik, which would account for the many remarkable images of chefs, waitresses and chambermaids. She has captured candid sights of the guests, too.

But in some works, Karolina creates a world of her own, and calls on imaginary people in strange situations – these are the works I find captivating.

Her latest exhibition (until February 21) features a delightful watercolour, Search for Heaven. The picture depicts three people gazing up with expectation, while three angels stand watching behind the hedge, and a rainbow dances across the sky. It is full of optimism, despite the fact that the viewer does not know what is being shown to the figures.

There are two pictures entitled Kitchen, one painted in oils and one in watercolours. Each features a chef with a tall white hat and hotel staff in traditional black and white outfits and each one captures a man just entering the kitchen through a half open door. In the oil it’s the chef holding a pink teapot that pulls the figures together.

In some pictures a man wearing a black hat is firmly placed among the gathering; in some a priest wearing what appears to be a ruff makes an appearance. In fact, the more you look at her works, the more you realise that most of the figures she paints are old friends she has simply placed in another location. The collection includes many etchings alongside the oils and watercolours. These show her fondness for the colour red, or deep pink to heighten the picture. It’s certainly a very effective way of bringing a work alive.

I called at the gallery on a day when snow and ice filled the streets of Summertown and arrived therefore slightly fraught and chilled to the bone. However, Karolina’s superb pictures warmed me in a way that only art can when it is this good.