A LANCASTER artist is taking part in the first virtual' art exhibition on the online auction site Ebay, to be launched on Monday.

Nineteen-year-old Kirsty Grayem (pictured) gave up an anthropology course at Durham to pursue her passion for art.

Now she has the opportunity to showcase her work to a wider audience with special interest expected from as far away as America The former Ripley St Thomas is a keen musician who plays the flute and saxophone and formed her own 14 piece jazz band locally.

She also travelled to New Zealand on a gap year and managed five other bands while living on the other side of the globe.

She says: "New Zealand was a mesmerising place and I see myself there in the future with my own little studio".

It was the trip around the world which had a real impact on her style of painting too.

"A lot of my art is inspired by Maori culture," she says.

"And so far my art has been well received. I have already had one commission and have my first commission from America due in a couple of weeks".

The Ebay exhibition was organised by members of the Independent Artists Group to allow professional and semi-professional artists to sell their work online.

But Kirsty hopes this is just the beginning, as she has an exhibition planned in Morecambe in December and has been asked to send some of her art to several contemporary art museums in America.

The Independat Art Exhibition runs on Ebay for seven days starting at 6am on Monday.

You can enter the exhibition on the Ebay site by using the keyword search IAE