A WOMAN who has been painting for more than seven decades has her palette poised to educate Wyre Forest art lovers in the classical technique of underpainting.

Underpainting Master Class with Catherine Moody is being exhibited at Kidderminster Library from Saturday, January 24, until Saturday, February 21.

Eighty-three-year-old Miss Moody took up painting at the age of seven and has been a professional artist and teacher all her adult life.

She said she decided to mount the step-by-step exhibition on the form of oil painting after a discussion of the subject with her artist friends at a garden party revealed a gap in their understanding of the technique.

"About two and a half years ago a group of professional artists were at my house in Malvern and talking about painting. They said that in their training they had not learned enough about oil painting and would like to know more about it, so I said I could explain it to them through underpainting."

Her friends then became her students, called The Depictors, and their work will be exhibited alongside hers at Kidderminster Library.

"We all gathered together in my studio and got a bust of Apollo and all made studies of it.

"And the exhibition shows how underpainting builds up stage by stage.

"We're assembling it in my studio, planning every section and wall of the exhibition, inch by inch, so there's a sequence people can follow right through."

The display will also feature work by Miss Moody's father, Victor, whose footsteps she followed in to become head of Malvern School of Art, and retired artist, Christopher Harrison, who has helped out with mounting.