UP-AND-COMING artists are joining forces to showcase their wares in cyberspace offering the world an insight into the raw talent being honed on Teesside.

Three former Cleveland College of Art & Design students have joined the ranks of about a dozen artists exhibiting their work on the on-line gallery www.neua.co.uk.

For Tiffany Bellwood, of Billingham, the initiative provides the chance to show off her textile artwork and grow her reputation as a serious artist.

“I have always been interested in art since I was little; there is nothing more I want to do and I really want to push my work,” said the 25-year-old, of Billingham, who graduated from CCAD four years ago with a national diploma in fashion and a BA Hons degree in textile and surface design.

“I am currently working in administration for an engineering company in Wynyard but spend all of my spare time on my art.”

Tiffany’s work is inspired by locations which she captures on canvas and develops using a variety of media, from masking tape to cotton, stitching and paint, giving a unique layered effect.

She has been joined on the site by other ex-CCAD students including extreme photographer Lucinda Grange, of Hartlepool, who specialises in taking shots from unusual places, such as the crow’s nest of the sailing shipping Trincomalee, sewers, from the top of the Brooklyn Bridge in New York and in war zones such as Mali.

Urban photographer Sam Wood, of Darlington, who is currently studying photography at university, is also featured on the site. They have teamed up with site developer and artist Stephen Irving, originally of Wallsend, now living in Eaglescliffe, near Stockton.