A Keighley artist who only started painting two years ago has had a brush with success in a national competition.

Lily Davies, 75, couldn't believe it when a painting she submitted to an art competition in The People's Friend magazine was chosen as one of the winners.

Her watercolour of a doorway in Tuscany, titled No 4, took joint second place along with four other runners up in the magazine's art competition. And her creativity has been rewarded with £500 worth of art materials, which the artist says will be put to good use.

Keighley College student Lily said: "I did the watercolour from a colour photograph my husband Walter had taken on a holiday we had to Italy.

"It was the best watercolour I had done so I thought it might be worth sending it, but I certainly didn't expect to win anything.

"I thought they must have been short of entrants but the magazine told me they had more than 1,700 pieces of art submitted."

Lily took up watercolour classes at Keighley College as a result of the direction her primary artistic passion, photography, was taking.

She added: "I was opposed to digital cameras and wanted to do something with more natural colours, so I took up watercolours at Keighley College.

"I'm still president of the Leica Postal Portfolios, which is a nationwide camera club, and I still enjoy photography and help to judge print competitions."

Art tutor Louise Limb said: "Lily has a distinctive eye for good composition and this is proof, if any were needed, that she can turn her hand to any creative venture."

Lily's painting will be on display at Keighley College Adult Education Roadshow, on Saturday, May 12, Silsden Methodist Church, on Saturday, June 9, and at Keighley Arts Factory, on the evenings of June 21 and June 25.