WORK by a Silsden-born artist – who was once encouraged by the great LS Lowry to "go her own way" – is currently on public display.

Paintings by the late Doris Schrecker are being exhibited until the end of this month at the Granary Art Gallery, Weston Park, Shropshire.

Also on show are sculptures and paintings by her sons, Jeremy and Leo.

It was whilst studying at the Slade School of Fine Art in London in the early 1950s that Doris received the words of advice from the great man.

After being educated at Keighley Girls' Grammar School and then studying at Skipton Art School, where she showed a particular talent for portrait sketching and painting, Doris won a scholarship in 1950 to study at the Slade.

"This was a tremendous achievement for Doris and her family," says Colin Neville, whose book Past Silsden Artists spotlights her life and works.

"But her time at the Slade was disappointing, as she found that her own painting style was at odds with the modernist tendencies of the college tutors of that time.

"Many art students found that if you didn’t connect with the artistic trends of the day, or in line with the preferences of a particular tutor or cohort of tutors, your artwork was often disregarded or even scorned.

"Fortunately around this time she had met the Lancashire artist LS Lowry who encouraged her to go her own way, forget the Slade experience and develop her own painting style – regardless of any ephemeral London-centric trends in art."

Doris – who had been born Doris Wilkinson, in 1930 – was in the closing stages of her course when she met talented cellist Bruno Schrecker, and they were married in 1953.

When Bruno learned he had won a coveted French Government scholarship to study with the celebrated cellist Pablo Casals, he and Doris travelled widely across Europe – initially spending a year at Prades in France where Pablo was based.

"Mindful of Lowry’s advice Doris left her London experiences behind her and painted the landscape of the region in her own way," said Mr Neville.

"Her work captured the heat and colour of the region, as well as the happiness of this honeymoon period for her.

"The memories of this French landscape and happy time in her life were also reflected in her paintings half a century later when back in Yorkshire."

The couple returned to Britain in 1955, when Doris gained an art teaching certificate and taught at a primary school in Wimbledon.

She also began to experiment with fabric collage – influenced by painters such as Chagall, Redon and Picasso – and was encouraged by the Roland, Browse and Delbanco Gallery in London which exhibited her textile artwork and introduced her to the curator of the Geffrye Museum.

But Doris retained her connections with this area and her first solo show of paintings and textile collages was at the former Keighley Museum, in Victoria Park, in 1957.

Her textile artwork was becoming increasingly recognised and admired and after being showcased at the Geffrye Museum, it featured in exhibitions across the UK and overseas.

In the late 1960s she was commissioned by the London Hilton Hotel to design and produce 12 huge wall hangings, which decorated its ballroom for over 30 years.

Her collage artwork was exhibited at Cliffe Castle in the summer of 1970.

After a break to raise her family, Doris started to teach art at adult education classes in the late 1970s and this prompted her to begin painting again herself.

She returned to Yorkshire in 2001 after she and Bruno were divorced and worked from her home and studio near Skipton, using the name Dorie Schrecker. She painted portraits, still life and landscape scenes.

Mr Neville said: "The timely advice of Lowry, combined with her own Yorkshire-bred stubborn streak, led her to paint in the way that suited her – and suited many others, who have over the years bought and collected her work."

Doris moved to Shrewsbury in 2008, where she lived until her death in 2017.

* Past Silsden Artists can be bought via the website, notjusthockney.info.