A FOOTBALLER'S wife says she has defied the stereotype to beat more than 300 European artists to a top painting prize.

Susan Gunn, the 41-year-old wife of former Norwich City and Scotland goalkeeper Bryan Gunn, has scooped the inaugural Sovereign Art Prize.

The former Westhoughton woman has been awarded 25,000 Euros (£17,000) for the 8ft by 10ft red painting, entitled Specto Spectus I & II.

Along with other shortlisted work, it has been on display at Bonhams auction house in London.

Mrs Gunn, nee Winward, began her training at Bolton College of Art after attending Westhoughton High School.

She put her studies on hold when she took up a modelling career and then opened a bridalwear business in Bolton. She went back to art school six years ago.

She said: "I have been stereotyped over the years, and I used to get really upset about it when I realised people had these preconceptions about me. But for some reason it doesn't bother me any more. I've risen above expectations."

Sir Peter Blake, famous for designing the Beatles' Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band album cover, was chairman of the judges.

Gunn's painting is described as "a carmine-coloured painting whose subtle surface textures speak of an overt male world of leather bound clubs, but also a subversive powerful female reality that links it to blood and veins which appear to work below the surface."

The prize was presented by the founder and chairman of the Sovereign Art Foundation at a gala dinner at Bonhams.