A retrospective artistic tribute to a Manx artist has gone up on display on Douglas Promenade.

The windows of the former Sayle Gallery, on the Villa Marina Colonnade, have been filled with pieces of art created by Sonya Watterson, who died in August, earlier this year.

Sonya worked as a marketing executive for many companies, including the Isle of Man Newspapers, and was also a proficient artist who studied under Norman Sayle and David Fletcher at the Isle of Man College during the early 1980s.

Following her death, friends and family organised to have a collection of her paintings display in the Sayle Gallery windows.

’Although she exhibited rarely, art was always a truly valuable part of her life and her quest for fulfilment,’ said friend and fellow arts student Paul Ford, who helped to organise the exhibition.

’Her more recent works show Sonya striving for self-expression as she shares her sheer delight in the pure sensuality of the material of paint.

’I hope these works will be seen more widely and appreciated as the honest reflection of a courageously sincere, warm and creative soul.

’They are a tribute to Sonya’s integrity as a person and an artist, never content to repeat the predictable, always searching.’

Paul thanked the Isle of Man Arts Council, the Post Office and Words and Spaces for their help with the exhibition, which will remain on display until the end of October.