AN 81 year old Otley artist who has been fighting ill health for decades is planning a new exhibition.

Diana Henderson was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease more than 20 years ago but has not let the condition dampen her creative impulse.

On the contrary, she has even credited the disease, though it often causes her pain and has left her housebound, for "opening my eyes and unlocking my imagination".

Now into her ninth decade, she feels as compelled to create art - whether it be through painting, sketches or the illustrated books she fills with collages, poems and short stories - as ever.

Diana hopes to stage her next exhibition of large, acrylic paintings at Otley Courthouse this summer but is warning that her new works represent a marked change in style.

They include three pieces, which will be displayed together as a triptych, inspired by the many sorrows and horrors of the past 12 months.

She said: "The triptych is a comment on the state of the world with all the terrible things that keep happening like terrorism, the events in the Middle East, the refugee crisis and violence against children - with so many drowning in the sea.

"As an artist I love colour and the landscapes around me but when I came to paint over the last year or so I couldn't, somehow, think of all that because so many awful things were happening in the world.

"I couldn't just paint a flower!

"So I thought what can I do and say about this? There isn't much I can do, but I decided to put something from my heart into my paintings about it."

Other recent inspirations have sprung from the challenges of being a woman, and of ageing.

She said: "Everyone is talking about longevity and how we are all living longer, but that can also be a challenge - most of us find it very difficult financially, and not everybody can paint as an outlet."

Diana, who achieved a BA in fine art at Hull followed by an MA at Leeds, started out as an abstract painter in the 1980s though her more recent works also include landscapes, portraits and figures.

Her house is brimming with canvasses old and new, which means she will have no shortage of options when it comes to choosing the selection for her 2017 exhibition.

In terms of her health she says she found a way of 'unclawing' her hand many years ago to enable her to keep painting, albeit with pain.

She still finds the early hours of morning best for her work, and can often be found at the easel in her studio at 3am.

She said: "I'm 81 now and it's not easy to paint when you have Parkinson's, I wont' pretend it is, but painting is the most important thing I have and it's what keeps me going.

"I was in hospital for five weeks a couple of years ago and was very ill, though I didn't realise it, but I was still drawing!"