A Stockport-based painter who spent her lonely childhood with sketches of imagined and scribbled friends has spoken out about an artists need to have ‘his or her own voice’.

Manchester-born Anne Aspinall is due to showcase her talent at Cheshire’s Gorstella gallery exhibition next month.

With collectors due to battle it out for her sublime and elegant paintings, MM spoke to Anne who admitted that her lonely upbringing has taught her that each artists needs an element to their work which marks them out from others.

Born in 1949 as the only child to a kind and artistic mother whose own work inspired Anne’s colourful paintings.

Whilst her mother ran errands and made the regular rounds visiting elderly relatives, Anne was nurtured by her high school art teachers and occupied herself by drawing.

“I created lots of brothers and sisters through my drawings together with all the ponies, dogs and cats…