STELLA Vine's controversial paintings - which include images of a young heroin victim and Princess Diana's death crash - might be considered unsuitable viewing for children.

But the colourful exhibition, which runs at Modern Art Oxford until September 23, has already inspired one group of youngsters to paint on canvas.

A group of 15 children aged eight to 12 from across the county took up the invitation to take part in the museum's summer holiday workshop.

And education staff at the Pembroke Street gallery say Vine's provocative paintings have inspired some excellent work from local youngsters.

Sarah Mossop, head of education at the museum, said painter Dionne Barber worked with the group to help them produce their paintings.

She said: "Children from all over the county signed up for this session. Dionne talked to them briefly about some of the themes and ideas in Stella's paintings and helped them to work on canvas.

"It was a full two-hour session and they probably don't get the opportunity to paint for such a concentrated period at school."

Fiona Heathcote, the museum's community and education coordinator, added: "The session went really well - I think it was a great success.

"Each child brought along a picture of a celebrity they wanted to paint and they used the Stella Vine exhibition to inspire their own painting.

"First the children sketched out an image and then started to paint on canvas. They really enjoyed it."

Charles Saatchi plucked Stella Vine from obscurity in 2004 after spotting one of her Princess Diana paintings in a small gallery in London.

The mother-of-one has since displayed her work all over the world but the show at Oxford is her first major UK exhibition.

Andrew Nairne, the director of Modern Art Oxford, decided to stage the exhibition after travelling to see one of Vine's shows in Alnwick, Northumberland.

The exhibition in Oxford is the artist's biggest so far and includes more than 100 paintings from the beginning of her career to the present day.

Viewers can see many famous faces on display, from Princess Diana and José Mourinho to John Lennon and Yoko Ono and Pete Doherty.

The artist had planned to include her latest work, the faces of the five prostitutes killed in Ipswich, but she was unable to complete the series in time for the opening.

Hundreds of art lovers have visited the show so far in what has proved to be one of the museum's most popular exhibitions to date.