STAFF at the Citizen are brimming with endless talent as demonstrated by creative typesetter David Atherton.

The University of Central Lancashire fine art graduate is tipped to be one of the greatest painters of the next century after coming up with some breathtaking creations.

David's exquisite paintings capture the colour and shapes of specific objects to create a visual feast of beautiful images.

Using various camera shots, David, 36, cleverly captures the obscurity of photographic backgrounds to form an amazingly real image.

He said: "Photography itself is an illusion as is painting, for this body of work I'm not trying to paint photo-realistically, nor to achieve realistic painted photographs, but to suggest what paint can achieve as a medium."

An exhibition of David's work opens at the University of Central Lancashire, Victoria Building, Plungington Road, Preston, today (Thursday, October 14) to October 29.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.