GAZETTE & HERALD: ARTIST Eleanor Long is enjoying a spell in the limelight now her work adorns the new extension of the Royal Geographical Society in London.

Ms Long attended Sheldon School, Chippenham, and her parents run the Cellar Gallery in the Causeway.

The extension includes an entrance with a glass balustrade etched with Ms Long's images from the society's collection.

She attended the launch ceremony and was delighted by the response to her work.

"It's great to see people walking along, and stopping to look at it."

The commission to design the artwork for the balustrade was hotly contested. Ms Long studied the archives to create her proposals, making it through to a shortlist of three artists, who had then to present their ideas to a committee including the architect and members of the RGS.

The glass balustrade is 20 metres long and 19mm thick. The artwork portrays different geographical and geomorphological features from both the northern and southern hemispheres.

Consecutive images range in scale and viewpoint, and each image is linked to the next through the flow, pace and rhythm of a line, or light and shade.

As locations leap from continent to continent, from micro to macro, the overall feel creates an undulating rhythm suggesting the act of journeying and exploration itself.

The artwork encourages the viewer to explore landscapes and forms for themselves and acts as an introduction to the knowledge and enthusiasm that the Royal Geographical Society itself has to offer.