Seven-year-old's artwork to go on display in prestigious gallery

If you are a budding artist who loves to draw and paint, seeing your masterpieces in a real art gallery one day may be closer than you think.

And seven year old Mia is proof!

Her piece entitled, "A man going to work" is going on display in the Lowry Theatre and Gallery in Salford after she won an art competition called the Copley Prize.

Her drawing will remain there for thousands of visitors to see for 12 months.

It will hang pride of place alongside famous paintings by the artist the gallery is named after - LS Lowry.

Mia's work was chosen from over 600 entries as this year's overall winner by Alison and Noel Copley.

The couple created the competition in 2013 to encourage and support children and young peoples creativity.

Alison said she loved how Mia's picture took inspiration from LS Lowry himself.

She felt she had captured "a man going about his daily life, but with such character and detail that we see this ordinary person with a fresh perspective".

"Mia is a very talented artist and we hope she and the other wonderful entrants of this year's Copley Prize keep on making and creating art."

Born in Salford in 1887, Laurence Stephen Lowry worked as a cashier in Manchester, collecting rent from local residents.

This meant he rarely left Manchester and Salford, but travelled around the local areas, and observed people in their everyday lives.

His work often reflects this, and shows crowds or groups of people milling about in industrial parts of Northern England and his distinctive "matchstick" people make his work easy to identify.

After his death in 1976, many of Lowry's paintings and sketches have been valued at more than £1 million when sold at auction, with his most famous piece, "Going to the match" selling for £7.8 million in 2022.