A YOUNG Blackwood mum who left her career in banking to reinvent herself as a mural artist completed a major new beach scene as the UK basks in blazing sunshine.

Stacey Brass, 28, finished her biggest work yet, an 8ft by 39ft mural that will be used as a backdrop for a kids’ beach outside the Taurus Arts and Crafts centre in Lydney, Gloucestershire, yesterday.

Mrs Brass rose through the ranks at banking giant Lloyds, taking up positions as a call centre worker, then team leader and finally PR officer but decided to give it all up to pursue her passion for art.

The mum-of-two, of St David’s Avenue, Blackwood, said: "It’s been a scary few months but my husband Lee has got a good job and supports me.

"It’s something I’ve wanted to do. Now I have left Lloyds I can focus on it 100 per cent.

"It is something I enjoy and I am comfortable with and can do around my kids.

"I don’t have to leave them for hours at a time, this is why I love it."

People urged her to switch careers after seeing a woodland scene she painted in a bedroom at home for her two-year-old daughter Lowri-Mai.

She started to paint other scenes in children’s bedrooms, which she describes as "nurseries" and family tree murals at homes around Blackwood.

Her nurseries and beach scenes have become among her most popular murals and she has also worked on wall paintings at a cafe and a fruit and vegetable store in Oakdale.

Creating the outdoor mural at the Lydney arts centre is a major landmark for her, as she explained.

"It’s huge for me because I have never been that far and I’ve always worked in houses, aside from the cafe and the fruit and vegetable shop. It’s a big establishment to go to."

* For more information, go to her website designsbystacey.com