AN artist who made a bold career switch to pursue her dream has landed first prize in this year's St Helens Open Art Competition – thanks to a portrait of her fiancé.?

Laura Quinn's exquisite study of Dylan Harris was picked by judges as the overall winner of the show, which is being exhibited at the World of Glass.

It caps a successful 12 months for the 31-year-old, who has a workshop in Haydock. In 2014 her profile was raised when she appeared in the final of Portrait Artist of the Year competition on the Sky Arts TV channel, which saw her paint a number of celebrities, including Sir Ian McKellen.

Speaking to the Star, Laura revealed how she had originally completed a maths degree at university in London but after realising she "didn't like sitting in an office every day" staring at numbers she went back to college to do an art foundation course followed by a degree in illustration.

I always loved art," she said, "but when I went to college it was a choice between art and maths. I decided to do maths as I thought I would be more likely to get a job.

"I thought I wanted to be an illustrator, but one of modules was was to make a piece of wildlife art and I entered a competition with my painting of ring-tailed lemurs. It was selected and it sold. That gave me the bug for creating my own art."

Laura, who got a first class degree in illustration, said people are surprised she studied maths first, but, she says: "Both subjects appeal to the way my mind works, I like to be precise."

The former English Martyrs' pupil, who also specialises in wildlife painting, said she was thrilled to win the competition.

She said: "It took me around five weeks to paint Dylan – I'm a slow worker because I like to get the detail right. Dylan likes the painting but doesn't like looking at it too much, so we won't hang it at home!"

As part of 2014 Portrait Artist of the Year, she also painted actress Ashley Jenson, Richard Dawkins and Rev Sally Hitchiner.

On the back of this, she was commissioned by the Royal College of Music to paint Dame Kiri Te Kanawa.

Second prize went to Tony Garner and third to the artist known as Drunk Wolf.

The exhibition, including more than 250 works, runs until September 11.