SCENES of beauty from as far apart as the Lake District and Zimbabwe have provided inspiration for Birchwood artist Paul Brotherton.

Paul's work is on display at his first exhibition in Manchester, which starts this week.

Entitled 'Life Tamed and Untamed', the show is being held at the Blyth Gallery, Brazil Street, in the Canal Street area of the city.

Professional artist Paul, aged 48, of Gorse Covert, studied art and design at Sheffield and graphic design in Wolverhampton.

After qualifying, he lived in the Lake District, then travelled extensively while working for an international airline.

Paul established his art career by initially working as a graphic designer, then he developed towards fine art painting and drawing. He works mainly with watercolour, oil-pastel, pencil, pen and ink, and his subjects include everything from urban northern cityscapes to the magnificent wildlife of Africa.

Paul said: "My choice of medium, working methods and the resulting images are influenced by the content, lighting and tones of a subject.

"Painting and drawing enables me to fulfil a deep creative need to produce representational work, evolving and developing individually or in a series.

"I'm a realistic and representative artist, rather than an abstract artist. I will be exhibiting 45 pieces of work, 15 of which are of scenes in Manchester.

"I tend to zoom in on a pub or theatre and get the characters walking past, rather than full landscapes."

Paul's paintings are on show until June 2.