CONSIDERING his current Blackburn exhibition claims to feature "some of the most original works painted in the north of England over the last 50 years" you would be forgiven for assuming that artist Stephen Warnes has an ego the size of a house.

Yet this talented painter is anything but your "typical artist".

Indeed, he's out to prove that artists can be nice people but what he really wants is to get people to look again at paintings.

"I don't mind if they really object to some of my paintings.

"The important thing to me is that they have had a chance to experience some art and to form an opinion about it," he said.

Stephen grew up in Accrington and lived and worked in East Lancashire until he moved away at the age of 21.

Now 54, it may be over 30 years since he lived in the area but, as many of the 22 works featured in his exhibition at Blackburn Museum and Art Gallery show, it has had a lasting impact on him.

"The moment I come back to the area for a visit I feel I am straight back into it," he said. "It's the sights, the accents, everything is still so evocative. The memories are all there.

"I suppose I have a love hate relationship with the area," he said. "They were fairly hard times and we were an honest working class family and I think those times when you grow up make you what you are to a great degree."

Stephen studied art the University of Essex and always knew that he wanted to be an artist.

"I am a fine artist rather than a commercial artist," he said. "I don't really paint with a view to creating a picture that will sell. I paint subjects I want to.

"The problem of being a fine artist is that you can find yourself starving in a garret somewhere and, with a family, that for me just wasn't an option."

As a result Stephen runs a successful music company in Cumbria, working mainly with schools.

But he still paints for at least three hours every day.

Stephen works primarily in acrylics.

"I like to paint with the family around me," he said. "Have you smelled the studio of an artist who uses oils? It stinks. I like to work in the lounge so I couldn't use oils for that."

The detail in Stephen's work will surprise visitors to the exhibition. He uses sketches he has made and increasingly uses photographs he has taken for reference.

"I use photographs to capture something I might have seen," he said. "But the paintings are not just copies of a photo. I recreate what I saw in my mind at the time when I took the photograph."

Stephen believes his style of painting changed dramatically after he was diagnosed with and subsequently overcame cancer in 1991.

"It was definitely a cathartic experience," he said. "I felt different as an artist after that."

The more complex paintings in the exhibition have detailed descriptions to accompany them making the works as accessible as possible, something Stephen is very passionate about.

"The problem with a lot of conceptual art is that people don't really understand it and fail to connect with the work," he said. "I hope that through the exhibition I can engage people from all backgrounds in art."

Deep Roots, an exhibition of the work of Stephen Warnes, is at Blackburn Museum and Art Gallery until Saturday, June 17.