AN ARTIST held her first exhibition and workshop at Winterbourne library.

France Bauduin presented her work for the first time and led a workshop on drawing cats and pencil drawing.

The exhibition was held as part of the South Gloucestershire Discover 2014 events on Saturday, October 11. Visitors of the exhibition were also invited to choose their favourite picture with the chance of winning a print of their chosen drawing.

Librarian Gabrielle Suddell said “The exhibition was very popular. Everyone loved the drawings, especially cat lovers, and everyone appreciated the fine details in her drawings of all the animals.

“Several hundred passed through during the day, some came for the exhibition but most came across it by accident and were drawn to her paintings which were prominent on the shelves. Lots of kids came over to see the cute kittens.”

Competition winner thirteen year old Lucy Serjent was awarded the drawing ‘Sleepy Heads’ and said she chose the drawing because it reminded her of the book series, ‘Warrior Cats’ by Erin Hunter she was reading who “just love their naps when they get time for one”.

France Bauduin works with coloured pencils, and was born in Quebec and has been living in England for the past 17 years. As well as her feline artwork she teaches French and IT and drawing classes at Silverhill School. Classes from the school are regularly sent to the library for visits and the artist was approached by the staff to arrange her exhibition after seeing some of her work.

The workshops were fully booked through the Discover Festival which is organised by South Gloucestershire Council with local residents, community groups and businesses.

She hopes to return to the library and hold monthly cat-drawing workshops.