ARTIST Michael Pickles suffered his second setback in five months when his £4,000 painting collection was destroyed in the Haslingden Library fire.

Michael, 27, who lives off Bolton Road, Darwen, was finally getting his life back on track after breaking his back in a motorbike accident last September and was hoping the exhibition would help his career prospects.

His work, which he had built up over many years, was in the exhibition room where the fire started and all but one of his 27 paintings were damaged.

Michael said: "Everything's gone except one picture of a dog. You just can't recompense something like that which years of work have gone into.

"Some of the work was stuff I had been commissioned to do and been paid for and had been hanging on people's walls before the exhibition. I spent nearly every penny I had on framing the pictures because each one costs about £40 to frame and mount. There were some really good quality frames."

Michael, a roofer for Blackburn-based PGB Roofing, came off his bike last September and broke his back. He said: "This exhibition was meant to get things out in the open and advertise myself as an artist. I was hoping to build the painting up into a career and make some money.

"Everything decent I had done was in the exhibition, apart from the paintings I couldn't get hold of from people living further away. A lot of it was my own personal collection. I don't even know if I'm insured for them."

Michael, a self-taught artist, is hoping people will still contact him for his paintings so that he can start to re-build his collection. He said: "I need to do lots of paintings and I would like to arrange another exhibition but it's going to take years."

Anyone interested in ordering a painting can contact Michael on 07771 628707.