BRADFORD'S derelict mills and industrial buildings have proved the inspiration for a new art exhibition.

Nancy Haslam-Chance was the winner of this year's Joan Day Painting Bursary, awarded in memory of the local artist, and her will go on display in Thornton's South Square Gallery as part of a month long exhibition starting on Saturday.

The artist now lives in London, but was born and brought up in Bradford, and she says the city and its buildings continue to influence her work.

The exhibition is titled A Dirty City, inspired by a famous David Hockney quote, and looks at Bradford's empty and unloved mills and Victorian buildings, imagining future uses for them.

Hockney's full quote was: “This big city I live in may be grey and black, a dirty city, but there is magic in it if I look at it closely.”

Miss Haslam-Chance, 25 and originally from Undercliffe, is currently working on MA course in drawing at the Royal Drawing School in London, although for this exhibition she has moved into painting. The exhibition, which runs until September 30, is her first solo show.

She told the Telegraph & Argus: "The exhibition is about Bradford, its history and its landscapes, especially its buildings. It is something I always do in my work, I always keep coming back to Bradford.

"It is about the cityscape, the mills and chimneys, and a lot of derelict buildings. A lot of the images are taking these uninhabitable ruins and turning them into imaginary worlds. It is imagining what these buildings could be.

"I went to Wapping primary school, which was a very important school for the city, but it was closed and now the building has been completely taken over by nature. A lot of the exhibition is about things like that.

"In London you hardly have any derelict buildings, any empty space is turned into studio flats or coffee shops. That is why this exhibition wouldn't work in London - it wouldn't make sense there but it is something everyone in Bradford will recognise."

Some of the images address the vandalism and fire that have plagued many of Bradford's historic buildings in recent decades.

She is happy that the exhibition is being held in South Square, an old building that has been re-purposed, adding: "It is an amazing space, with lots of different things going on. It is good to see what happens here still happening in Bradford."

The exhibition also touches on the work of women in Bradford's mills and the friendships they led to.

A Dirty City will also include old aerial photographs of the city, and will officially be launched at an evening event at South Square tomorrow night at 6pm, which will feature cocktails, food and music.