Anyone will tell you Liverpool is a city full of "best kept secrets". Here's the latest - and it's not too much of a stretch to say it doesn't look like staying that way for long.

Artist Madelaina Murthwaite has come a long way in a short time. Now the director of The Gallery - Liverpool's Best Kept Secret, as she calls it, she can be found most of the week on the top floor of Clayton Square shopping centre in the city centre.

It's the latest instalment in a fascinating and blossoming career that came about purely by accident, as illness revealed to Madelaina a hidden talent she never knew she had.

It's hard to believe that she has only been creating art for two and a half years. Wirral-based Madelaina had a successful career in
teaching before becoming affected by a muscular condition known as fibromyalgia in 2007. Leaving her fatigued, in pain, and at its worst unable to use her arms, she was forced to leave the profession as she learned to live with what fate had dealt her.

Hoping to help with her initial recovery, her father bought her a box of pastels, thinking the soft materials would be easier for her use than pens or pencils to get her hands and arms moving again. Not only did it
help her to manage her condition, it revealed the start of a remarkable fast-track art career.

It was exhausting and painful progress. But in time she was drawing and painting, copying pictures of still life and celebrities. It was her portrait work that quickly grabbed attention.. Her first solo exhibition was held at Liverpool Academy of Arts in July 2008, followed by a second in Blackburne House in autumn last year.

Although she turns her hand to a variety of subject matters, her celebrity portraits have made her a self styled "artist to the stars".. People including Paul Weller, Elvis Presley guitarist James Burton, and Ricky Tomlinson have personally signed the paintings she has done of them, and rocker PJ Proby is one of her next subjects - at his request, no less.

In September last year, her name was put forward when Clayton Square put out the call for a local artist to display in one of their empty units. Madelaina seized the opportunity, and created The Gallery.

It began as just a showcase for her art. But a look at the licence showed her she also had the right to sell and not just exhibit, and The Gallery began to take shape, officially opening last Halloween. Now she shows and sells guest artists alongside her own work.

"When you start up a new business it's going to be 24/7 and you've got to grab any opportunity. I've got so many ideas for this place," she said.

"I love helping people - althoughtmy vision was The Gallery was simply just my work. I started opening just on Saturdays to test the water, and it's just grown and grown. My ethos now is to support local artists in the community."

Now open Thursday to Sunday (when she works there in residence), she is currently displaying her first open exhibition, Mad About Liverpool, which attracted 23 local artists to take part including established names such as Nathan Pendlebury, Eddie Bishop (brother of comedian John), and a 14-year-old up-and-coming talent whose colourful city skylines are already being snapped up by collectors. It finishes on January 30.

"What I do is totally different to any other gallery," Madelaina says. "I want it to be accessible. Galleries can be very intimidating and I'm bringing art into the heart of the community. And it's a great community in Liverpool - every day someone comes in here and makes me laugh my socks off. Everyone always has stories about the work in here and I feel it's the best job in the world. People look in the window and I just say, 'get yourself in here!' I don't want people to feel scared to come in."

Madelaina's tenacious and disarming spirit is the driving force behind her success (after all, laughing your socks off can usually get you funny looks in an art gallery). She is not afraid to get out there, network and try her luck, and her entrepreneurial nature has really begun to get her noticed.

But overwork means the fibromyalgia can again take its toll, and she has to try not to tire herself out. Living with the condition adds an extra dimension to her art.

Her work - her recognisable Beatles portrait, 4 Beats, which she wears on a t-shirt every day in The Gallery - features on the front of first ever edition of Fibromyalgia UK magazine this month. She is justifiably proud, as campaigning for awareness of the charity is something very close to her heart.

It's also bought about a new addition to venue - Fibro, her own personalised Mankey Monkey. Set out in the same pose and colours as the charity's logo, the monkey has pride of place as a symbol connecting the two passions in her life.

"I'm not embarrassed about my fibromyalgia. I'm a very private person, but not about that," Madelaina said. "Fibro's a great talking point and I encourage people to have their picture taken with the monkey and make a donation and it's a way of linking the two things. I would really like to become an ambassador for fibromyalgia because I love talking to people and public speaking."

The next project is Mad About Music, a one-off night of music and song at the Dockers Club in Anfield on February 5, with the duel aim of raising awareness of The Gallery and fibromyalgia.

It will be followed up by another open exhibition, also titled Mad About Music, in March.

Gallery browsers are entitled to a 20% discount at the adjacent coffee shop, in the hope a bit of second thought might encourage that all-important sale. Not that there's any problem in that regard - one gentleman came in during the course of this interview who had snapped up two paintings there, spending a not insignificant amount of money in the process. A steady stream of visitors comes and goes, and Madelaina stops for a friendly chat with them all.

She says her organisational skills and teaching experience help her to capitalise on her talents in a way many artists can be ill-equipped to do successfully. Which leads to another outlet for the gallery - managing artists and offering a consultancy service to help market artistic talent.

She hopes the venue will soon be used for afternoon concerts and talks and is available for private events. For the gallery, a lot depends on what might happen with the centre's plans for the unit in future (The Gallery is currently looking for help with funding or sponsorship). But in the meantime, there's plenty to keep Madelaina inspired.

"I'm learning things all the time. I can't believe I'm doing it and this place is open. You just don't know what's coming next, but I hope to be here for 2011. No," she says proudly. "I'm determined I'm going to be here."

For information on The Gallery and Madelaina, see her website www.madelainartz.com.

By Vicky Anderson

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