A WINCHESTER artist turned her home into an art gallery to show off work by a group of 16 artists.

The walls of Beryl Osborne's home in Canon Street were adorned with numerous mixed media exhibits based on textiles.

Dozens of art lovers flocked to the unusual venue to see the showcase of work by textile artists during the week-long exhibition.

Beryl said textile artists often have problems getting their work shown in established galleries, hence the setting for the latest show.

She said: "If you go into a lot of galleries the blinkers come down and people think of textile art and little old ladies doing cross stitch. There is a place for that, but people need to be aware that textile art has great diversity.

"We stitch into paper, metal, plastics. It is not just sewing. We use hot air guns, glue guns, stencil cutters, soldering irons, puree tubes.

"We are getting a lot of interest from people, even some young lads. I don't mind people people coming in to the house, it's quite interesting. You can talk to them."