AN acclaimed artist has won a national commission to produce a painting which will ultimately be auctioned off at a gala dinner at the Royal Albert Hall.

Chris Lever, 54, of Water Picture Gallery, Waterfoot, has been asked to create a piece of work for human rights pressure group Amnesty International.

Chris, who has been based in the Valley for eight years and last year won national acclaim after her work was selected to be published and distributed nationwide as limited editions.

Since the commission, which involved her producing ten paintings for Cheshire business Selective Prints, Chris said she had never been as busy.

She said: "I have been asked to show a piece of work at Amnesty International's show in The Mall Gallery in London and the work will then be auctioned at a celebrity dinner at the Royal Albert Hall in October when half the proceeds will go to the charity and half to artist.

"The subject is life and death and is about death row. It is my interpretation of how death row is for the people on it, the families whose loved ones may or may not have committed a crime which is why they are on death row and the victims 'families."

Chris has completed preparatory work for the painting and will have the finished artwork ready in a fortnight.