Walking into the North Wall Gallery last week you could have been forgiven for thinking you were viewing work by L.S. Lowry. Not so, the oils were by Bampton’s Pip Shuckburgh. Whereas Lowry painted the industrial districts of the north and peopled them with his popular stick figures, Pip tends to set her crowds against fine buildings such as Blenheim Palace and Somerset House.

At the same time her remarkable skies filled with puffy atmospheric clouds make these works her own. Her little people differ, too, though like those that Lowry depicted, they add the necessary action to a picture. Some have their back to the viewer as they watch Morris dancers (pictured); others observe a dressage demonstration at Blenheim, and some are walking through the rain, clutching umbrellas. Now and again she places a small dog into the crowd.

Horses feature in many pictures. They are beautifully depicted, such that you can almost feel their movements as they prance gracefully across the canvas.

Then there are the buildings she has presented in isolation, such that it is the beauty of these that tells the story. They contain a compelling starkness, just as many of Lowry’s studies of industrial sites do; but once again there is a considerable difference between the way the two artists have captured their subject matter.

Pip says each of her pictures is a story. Only when she has decided what the story will be, does she begin to paint, each brush stroke pulling the action from her head and on to the canvas. Unfortunately, this exhibition closed on Saturday, but no doubt her works will be on show again shortly — because, yes, they are that good.