Works of art by local people are being celebrated in an Artsy Social art exhibition at the Corinium Museum.

The exhibition, which opened on January 11 and runs till February 4, features works of art by people from Michaela Norton's Artsy Social sessions and individual students who attend one-to-one art tuition with her.

Michaela Norton is a self-taught artist based in Gloucestershire. She specialises in acrylic portrait and landscape paintings. Her deep passion for painting was discovered as a child when she painted her first oil on canvas aged 10 and sold her first oil painting aged 12.

At 19 years old Michaela started her full-time career as a freelance artist. She has produced artwork for the BBC, Cancer Research, and author Jilly Cooper.

More recently she contributed to Tom Croft's Portrait for NHS Heroes initiative. Michaela's first portrait was selected to be on the cover of Artist and Illustrators Magazine. 

A later portrait of 'Sam & Harriet' was selected among thousands and published in 'Portrait for NHS Heroes Book' by Bloomsbury Publishing and chosen to be exhibited by Google Arts & Culture online Exhibition.

Michaela, who loves to inspire others, said: "Many people expressed to me that they had a desire to paint but had blocks or were told they just weren't creative.

"I believe we all have creativity within us especially when there is desire there, so I wanted to inspire others and give people the opportunity to explore their inner creativity in a fun, supportive and social way without expectation or pressure to perform." This is how the Artsy Socials were born.

Michaela started her Artsy Social events a year ago. In that time her events have grown and she now hosts them across the Cotswolds at various café bars and coffee shops in Cirencester and Stroud for adults and children.

She has created a supportive space and the opportunity to meet like-minded people who share their love of art and the desire to paint with no experience necessary. 

During these sessions Michaela provides a step-by-step demonstration so that everyone can learn various methods and art techniques to produce their own Artsy masterpiece using acrylic on canvas.

Michaela is an incredibly passionate artist and loves to "bring out the artist in you".

She added: "You only need one person to believe in you, to enable you to believe in yourself.".

This exhibition celebrates this by showing the artwork of those who hadn't always believed they could paint or be part of an art exhibition.