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Worldwide impression: Three-year-old's paintings a global phenomenon

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A three-year-old artist has become a global phenomenon after her story appeared in the Leicester Mercury.

Autistic youngster Iris Grace Halmshaw's gift for impressionist-style artworks has been featured on websites around the world, and orders for her paintings have flooded in.

She has appeared on the websites for the China Times, Italian newspaper La Repubblica and German tabloid Bild, which described the youngster, from Harborough, as "ein kleiner Monet", or "a little Monet".

Her parents said dozens of people from across the globe have inquired about buying prints and all of her original paintings were sold, one for as much as £1,500.

Her father, Peter-Jon, 43, said people in 203 countries had read the story since the Mercury first wrote about her last month.

He said: "We're still going through all the orders and they keep on flooding in. We are amazed at the response and are very thankful for all of the supportive e-mails that have been coming in from other parents of autistic children.

"In the days after the Mercury article appeared we had up to 14,000 page views on Iris Grace's website each day. Then the story started cropping up in the nationals and publications as far away as Taiwan picked it up.

"We had a piece in the Daily Mail and after that we had a quarter of a million page views one day." He said Iris Grace had been "mesmerised" to see her story appear in print, as well as online.

He said: "I think she has an inkling of what's happening. Whether she could understand people in 200 countries are reading about her, I don't know."

She was two when diagnosed with autism. She rarely made eye contact with her parents and, fearing she was slipping away from them, they tried different therapies.

She started painting as part of her home-schooling with her mother, Arabella, who said: "With the help of many therapists, she changed dramatically in a short space of time. We still have a long way to go with her social skills and speech, but have many more good days."

The money from the art sales will help pay for her therapies, which cost more than £7,000 per year.

But the family's main aim in publicising their daughter's story was to share a positive view of autism and to inspire other parents.

www.irisgracepainting.com

Worldwide impression: Three-year-old's  paintings a global phenomenon


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