An artist who only took up painting after travelling around Australia for a year has been signed up by a restaurant chain to create Aboriginal-style pictures for them.

Susie Ross fell in love with the style of abstract painting during her tour Down Under in 1996.

When she returned home she began painting and occasionally sold a picture to family or friends.

However since a work colleague encouraged her to contact bosses at an Australian-themed restaurant chain opening up in the Essex, her hobby has really taken off.

Now she is set to do more paintings for the expanding Outback Steak House chain.

But Susie, 30, of Fairview Avenue in Stanford-le-Hope, is not letting success go to her head.

She still holds down a job working for a marine travel consultants and also lectures part time in leisure and tourism at Thurrock College.

And she said: "I love both the jobs I do so I don't think I'm going to be dropping it all for painting at the moment, even though I love doing that too."

One of Susie's biggest paintings to date, a 9ft by 4ft canvass, is now hanging on the wall of the chain's restaurant in Romford.

They will soon be opening a new restaurant in Basildon and Mike Palmer, joint venture partner in the business which has 700 outlets in the USA, said they were likely to take on Susie again.

He said: "She showed us the type of thing she did and we like what we saw. That was why we asked her to paint for us. I think her work is excellent."

Susie has now set up a website to feature her work at www.outbackdesign.co.uk

Published Tuesday January 15, 2002