HER work already graces the approaches to the Scottish Poetry Library in Edinburgh and the Central Library in Dundee and is known as far afield as Japan.

Now visual artist Mary Bourne's latest canvas is to be the River Ness as it flows through Inverness.

She has won a £60,000 commission from the Highland Council, aimed at enhancing the streetscape along the city's riverbanks.

She said of the Inverness commission: "I am very excited to be involved with this project. Rivers are of central importance to the communities which spring up along their banks; in many cases the community is where it is specifically because of that river.

"It will be fascinating to be working along the River Ness with the people who live there today, looking at what the river means to them, as well as what it has meant in the past, and may mean in the future. We live in a constantly changing world, and in the river, perpetually flowing and changing, we can see a reflection of our own lives."

It is the first commission to be part of the £750,000 River Connections public art project being promoted by the local authority. It will also complement the council's work on the River Ness Flood Alleviation Project.

Councillor Ken Gowans, Chair of The Highland Council's Inverness City Arts Group, said the project "affords a unique opportunity to begin to really develop Inverness as an important cultural centre."

Bourne, from Moray, works principally in natural stone.