Envelopes at Riverhouse Barn

But an imaginative art project at Walton's Riverhouse Barn paints a rather different picture.

Central St Martin's graduate Harriet Russell came up with the ingenious idea of sending letters through the post addressed in various creative and puzzling ways to see which ones would reach their destination.

From crosswords and wordsearches to intricate picture clues, Russell tested our good postmen and women to the limits with her cryptic designs. And they rose to the challenge.

"I started work on it back in 1999, during my degree course in Glasgow," says Russell, 29.

"A lot of the first ones I sent to myself to see if the idea would work and it did! When most of them got through I began sending them to friends and famil, too.

"People couldn't really believe they'd arrived. Sometimes it took them quite a few minutes to read the address themselves."

Each envelope is a mini work of art and 75 have now been collected in a book, stocks of which have already sold out at Riverhouse.

Envelopes: A Puzzling Journey Through the Royal Mail is also available on Amazon where more than 15,000 copies have been sold, boosting Russell's already flourishing illustration career.

Not only is she regularly commissioned by national newspapers and women's magazines but her skills are also much in demand by publishers.

"Because I can do lettering, I get lots of commisions for book covers," says Russell, "and I like doing them - anything where I'm given some freedom to develop ideas."

"It takes a while to build up a career in illustration. You really have to knock on doors just to get your work seen."

Which is why she has joined illustrators collective Gumbo and shares a studio in Wapping with other artists called Happiness at Work - it's all about strength in numbers.

Envelopes, Riverhouse Barn, Manor Road, Walton on Thames, until Sunday, November 5.

Call 01932 253354 or visit riverhousebarn.co.uk, or gumboillustration.co.uk.