LANDSCAPE painter Sue Lawson, 34, who works in the Romantic English tradition, is in demand.

Her pictures, which draw references from Turner, Constable and the Impressionists, are being snapped up almost as soon as she can complete them.

"I've kept my head down for the last few years to get my work up to standard, but now I am happy with it and it is going really well," she said.

Inspired by changing light and weather conditions, she works outside in the Yorkshire Dales and at her home in Crakehall, near Bedale, producing oil paintings, pastels and drawings of the landscape from the Yorkshire and Northumberland coast across to Cumbria and the Lake District.

Her highest achievement so far this year was to have a work accepted for the Manchester Academy of Fine Arts open competition. It was her first entry attempt to this major show which runs until May 7.

Closer to home, she has pictures permanently on show at Red House, a crafts and art gallery in Bedale, and the Old School Gallery at Muker and OGG Gallery in Ambleside are taking work from Easter.

She said: "I enjoy being outdoors, taking photographs and working on location as much as possible. What I love most is the challenge of recording the atmosphere of a place I have visited."

Her work is in several private collections in this country and the US.

The artist, who has lived in the area since 1992, combines painting with being a mother to Alexandra, seven, and James, six. Her partner, Ian Ord, is an art teacher at Northallerton College.