A South Hams woman has been shortlisted for a prestigious award recognising the best up and coming artist in the country.

Danielle Davis from Ivybridge produces work in her unique style under the name Danielle D.

Her staple character is a bovine named Buddy the Bull, who is joined in the pictures by love interest Bo and many others. She calls the characters Buddy, Bo & Co.

Now Danielle, who graduated from Plymouth University with a BA in Fine Art in 2006, has been shortlisted for the Art and Framing Industry Awards 2017 in the Up and Coming Artist category.

She is now pulling out all the stops to get as many votes as possible before the poll closes on Sunday, March 19.

Danielle became a full time artist after becoming a mother and subsequently losing a job she loved. She says her work is a reflection of the positive emotions motherhood brings.

Danielle wrote: "In 2014 I went back to my day job in adult social care after maternity leave to find I didn’t actually have a job any more, all of the service users and pretty much all of the staff were gone.

"I was gutted, I had a very rewarding job working with adults who had an array of disabilities, and through art we could get their confidence back and even improve their situation. So there I was, new baby, no job.

"Throughout the process of being made redundant I still had to go into work even though there wasn’t actually anything to do. We were advised to bring in a book to read, so I took my sketch book. It was in this period that Buddy the Bull was born.

"Buddy got me through a pretty hard time, a time when I didn’t know what was next for me, a time when really all I wanted to do was be back home with my baby. But from deep somewhere I managed to create this character who, before I knew it, took my imagination to a whole new level, and I’ve never looked back.