AN ARTIST is enjoying international success after just 18 months of making her passion a full-time job.

Lucy Pittaway, from Brompton-on-Swale, has become in demand to exhibit her work in venues around the region, both on a solo basis or alongside other artists.

Mrs Pittaway, the daughter of late Middlesbrough and England footballer Willie Maddren, works in pastel and is selling internationally through her steadily growing Facebook page.

“I have been an artist all my life really – I followed that path from 16, and went on to Northumbria University to study graphic design,” she said.

“I spent a while teaching at colleges but it has always been in me to be an artist and I needed a way of making it a career that was reliable, but I never dared make the jump while I was single and paying a mortgage.”

She said: “I left my teaching job and took a year out to travel, and decided to really make a go of it on my return.”

She is hilkding an exhibition at the Station, Richmond, from March 21 to April 15, followed by more solo exhibitions at Middleton Lodge in May, Richmond’s Georgian Theatre Royal in June and Tennants Auctioneers in Leyburn in August.

To see Mrs Pittaway’s work visit lucypittaway.co.uk.