This is the type of exhibition that reveals more than it displays. The gallery walls are hung with colourful pictures of little girls and young women inspired by fantasy and fact who seem to be unconcerned with, or somehow disconnected from, the situation. But the overall effect is not one of drifting through a romantic dream, it is more along the lines of suppressing a sinister reality.

There is a undercurrent swirling through these works and once it is noted the images take on a sense of darkness totally unrelated to their hue and tone. Many of the paintings reference 'love' but the idea of an equal exchange of emotion is replaced by a sense of the woman's impassive resignation to a social construct of dominant/submissive. Like sacrificial offerings, these maidens and their younger sisters obediently place their destiny in the hands of men.

The use of such motifs as flowers, pale plaster busts, torn dresses and dark figures looming in the background or wearing skeleton costumes suggest deflowering, emptiness, ravaging, fear and death. Images of emotionless virgins, frightened women, seductive fashion models, the mistress, even Marilyn, reaffirm the concept that all women, real or imagined, are valued for one thing; they are there for the taking. These are not 'love goddesses' they are potential sex objects available in either fact or fantasy. In Roses are Red a young woman stands and stares at a vase of flowers not at the city view outside the window. Her blouse is open to expose her breast but her pose is closed and unyielding. A male figure looms, half hidden behind a curtain. Somehow we don't get the feeling this is a happy honeymoon suite!

McDougall works well in the smaller format. Eight little studies of heads are engaging exercises of colour and brushwork. In these the artist draws well with the brush and lets the paint, not the subject, direct the development of the image. Another collection of four small works, each depicting a girl in some sort of jeopardy, has the same sense of urgency as a distress note written in haste. The emotive energy held in check by the small frames adds to their impact. Unfortunately much of this energy is dispersed in the larger format.

The unevenness of the artist's figure drawing suggests she works best with either a specific person in mind or some kind of model to work from. For example her self portraits, Suzette in the City, and Marilyn in The Lovers are very well presented while other figures are poorly proportioned. And the two girls in Little Birds are beautifully modelled on John Singer Sargent's The Daughters of Edward D. Boit whereas other depictions of the girl child are less connected.

The title of this exhibition may be 'Love and Shadows' but the enigmatic imagery references sexual shadows more then mutual love. It's a very thought provoking collection of work.