An education consultant who taught herself to paint on silk is holding a public exhibition of her efforts.

Marie Philpott, 61, of Stanford in the Vale, is showing off her skill with silks at the Vale and Downland Museum in Wantage.

The former teacher, who founded her own training and consultancy business in 2009, started practising the craft in 2011.

She said she loved the medium because the results are so often impossible to predict.

Mrs Philpott said: “I love the way the colours flow on the silk.

"And the way that the colours can be mixed and blended to produce a wide range of different effects.

“Each finished piece is totally unique.

“I usually use silk paint for pictures and silk dyes for scarves, because dyes generally produce deeper, more vibrant colours.

“As a self-taught silk painter I am still learning.

"The development of a new skill or the mastery of a new technique is a real delight to me.”

Despite her relative inexperience, she earned herself a place on the Guild of Silk Painters in 2012.

When she is not painting on silk, Mrs Philpott is also a passionate amateur photographer, and even found a way to print her own photographs on to silk, some of which works will be included in the museum show.

The exhibition, entitled Hand Painted Silk, opened last Wednesday in the museum’s Upper Gallery and runs until this Saturday, April 18.

There will also be a chance to chat with Mrs Philpott at a meet-the-artist session tomorrow (Thursday), April 16, from 10.30am to 12.30pm.

The museum in Church Street is open every day from 9.30am to 4pm except Sundays and Bank Holidays.