An artist from Pembrokeshire who had 20 of her oil paintings stolen along with her car in Cardiff has offered a reward for their return.

Cherry Pickles was taking the paintings to an exhibition in Athens where she was due to represent Wales at the weekend.

One of the paintings stolen by thieves

The artist, from Trefin near St David's, had left the works locked in her car boot overnight on Monday in the Roath area of Cardiff.

But the car, a red Ford Escort, was stolen from outside the house along with the paintings.

Later on Tuesday two of the larger canvasses were found abandoned in an alleyway in Grangetown in the city.

A distraught Mrs Pickles, a lecturer in painting and fine art at the University of Wales Institute Cardiff (UWIC), has offered a reward to try to get the paintings returned unharmed.

Irreplaceable

"This represents about 10 years of my work," said Mrs Pickles.

"They are irreplaceable and I need to find them in order to get them to London for shipping."

Many of the paintings are landscapes of Pembrokeshire, where the artist and her husband Crispian have lived for more than a decade.

Others were self portraits by the artist.

Mrs Pickles has one of her paintings, Bleeding Yew of the famous tree in Nevern churchyard, on display in the National Museum of Wales in Cardiff.

As well as the exhibition in Greece, she was also due to display the stolen works at the UWIC staff show as part of Cardiff Art & Design Week.