Have you got an early Beryl Bainbridge on your walls?

The late Dame's emergence as a painter, with an exhibition due in Liverpool next month, prompts a search for her early work

Beryl Bainbridge became known, after her great success as a writer, as the custodian of a strange and fascinating house in London's Camden Town, filled with unusual objects including a stuffed buffalo with a mournful gaze.

But her mind was roaming northwards much of the time, especially to Liverpool where she was born and later worked as a young actress, and often one who had paint on her hands.

To supplement her wages at the Playhouse (and for a bit part in Coronation Street where she helped Ken Barlow make a Ban the Bomb placard), she sold large and vivid canvasses. She worked on them at her flat in Huskisson Street, at first alone and then in the company of her husband Austin Davies who was working at the theatre painting scenery. She was very good and impressively productive; up to 30 oil paintings were completed every year.

Where are they? A celebration of her art in a new book by her best friend Psiche Hughes and an exhibition at the Museum of Liverpool which opens next month prompt the question. Hughes has assembled a glowing range of Bainbridges – Dame Beryl was marvellously attracted to bright colours – and the museum is showing 15 of them.

Some are picured here, courtesy of her estate and Thames & Hudson, and there are more in this excellent picture gallery done by our pals at the Observer in London.

But there are others; or there were, particularly early work sold when she and Davies, who later became a lecturer at Liverpool Art School, were making ends meet. Do the ones below strike any chords of recognition? Have you, or someone you know, got a bright, inventive canvas on a wall, unrecognised; or stashed away?

Bainbridge was playful in both her books, for all their darker side, and her art and the pictures combine historical settings with references to her many friends. Napoleon, for example, appears regularly with the features of her youthful boyfriend Don McKinlay from Bootle. Psiche Hughes and her family are shown in front of a vivid red backdrop. Other pals meet Dr Johnson or passengers on the Titanic.

Some have a look of early 20th century German art, the work of guardian.co.uk © 2012 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds