Anne Collier had always been interested in art but got pushed into the straitjacket of accountancy. She tells Steve Pratt how she escaped to build up one of the most successful art galleries in Newcastle.

ANNE Collier is explaining the pleasure and pain test that can be applied when buying art. Does the pleasure of looking at the particular piece of art outweigh the pain of parting with money to purchase it? Do you like it and will you still like it in six months time? A piece of art, you might say, is not just for Christmas but for life.

Just as her approach to art buying is not what you might expect, so the contemporary art gallery she's run for 28 years in the centre of Newcastle is unconventional.

It is situated in the basement, but entered from street level, off an office block in Dean Street. Gradually, over the years, the rabbit warren of corridors and rooms has been comprehensively developed, without spoiling the character, into an art gallery with a surprise around every corner.

Ask the reason for what is now Newcastle's oldest contemporary art gallery surviving while others around have closed, and Anne says: "Sheer pig-headedness". For 27 years, she made no profit, existing on loans taken out to expand and keep the business going.

Realising that custom picture framing was producing only 30 per cent of her income but taking up a considerably larger proportion of her time, she ceased that side of the business to be a gallery, pure and simple.

As a child, she wanted to be an artist. The school streaming system meant she was forced to drop art as a subject at 11. Her father pushed her into accountancy, an occupation she hated so much that, as an articled clerk in Liverpool, she would go for five-mile walks to get rid of her pent-up frustration at working in that environment. Eventually, she left to work on a farm, milking cows and driving a tractor.

Eventually, she was persuaded to go into picture framing with her father. The name over the door read W M and A Collier although "his idea of helping was to disappear out to the pub".

Anne sold her pre-1947 silver collection to provide capital for the business, originally housed upstairs in a Victorian warehouse. A year later she moved to the Dean Street premises which were "dark, dingy and horrible". Over the years, she has acquired more and more space, until occupying the entire basement five years ago.

She began by going to the Sunday art and craft market at Armstrong Bridge in Jesmond, asking artists if they wanted their work framed.

In those days, diploma courses for framing didn't exist. She taught herself, with advice from the reps who called into the gallery.

"One particular rep encouraged me to buy the best machinery even if I couldn't afford it. I've always gone for the top of the range. I never cut corners, although that's what you do in picture framing itself," she says.

"I learnt the hard way. But you take something people bring in and make it look a million dollars."

The number of mount colours and mouldings in stock ensured customers got the best. Too often, she began to discover, they took up time seeking for advice and then went away to have the work done elsewhere. Last September, she stopped custom framing because the rewards were not enough to compensate for the hassle. The only framing she does now is for pieces going on show in the gallery.

Nowadays she doesn't need to look for art for the gallery. People come to her offering their work. At any one time, she has anything from 60 to 80 originals - paintings and prints - on show and for sale.

Anne is developing the exhibition side, having recently presented an £1m display by Roger Dean, who did album covers for people like Rick Wakeman and Yes. She plans a display of original prints and print production, and wants artists to demonstrate their work at open days.

Then, there are buyers experiencing the pleasure and pain of choosing an art work. Those between 20 and 30 want something bright and modern - "a lot of picture for their money, but will spend £500 or £600 if it's right," she says.

"People between 40 and 50 tend to buy pictures for other people and, over 50 and retired, they think small is cheap."

Pride in her work makes her regard those buying art as what she calls "wall furniture" less highly. "It's art in a sense but part of the whole look. They've been brainwashed by shows like Changing Rooms and magazines to think everything has to match the curtains," she explains.

"Art, in my definition, is something with which you have to have an emotional relationship."

That applies to the art hanging in her own home. "Most of the pictures are things I wouldn't part with for emotional reasons," she says.

l Colliers, Milburn House, Dean Street, Newcastle (entrance opposite Dog Leap Antiques). Call 0191-232 2819 for further information.