Shop owner and artist Christine Cox buys back her own paintings at auction

Artist Christine Cox with the distinctive panel called Town Crier

When Christine Cox saw two paintings for sale in a Harrogate auction she just had to have them – because they were her own work.

The distinctive panels are made from birch wood. The designs are drawn on birch wood, each piece is cut out with a fretsaw, sanded and hand painted, assembled and glued to a hardboard background and framed.

The Picasso-esque pictures – called Town Crier and Turpin – were crafted in the 1970s and Miss Cox does not know how they ended up in Morphets Auctioneers.

"A friend saw them in the catalogue, told me about them and I just had to buy them back,” she said. Miss Cox put in a high bid – she declined to reveal the sum – to secure the two pieces. They can be seen with more of her artwork in the shop she runs – Ancient and Modern Collectables – in Hanover Road, Scarborough. Miss Cox is a self-taught artist and has had many exhibitions.