Creative children from nurseries and preschools across Chester, Wirral and North Wales have been showing off their incredible talents.

Youngsters got to see their art work displayed in a special exhibition as part of the annual Little Artists competition at The Queen's Lower School in Chester.

This time around the competition had a distinctly cheeky theme, drawing its inspiration from the celebrations surrounding the start of the Chinese Year of the Monkey and the popular story book Monkey and Me by Emily Gravett.

Children from more than 20 different settings created monkey-inspired masterpieces by drawing, painting and sculpting pieces of art for the exhibition, resulting in a gallery full of creative and imaginative work.

Amanda O'Hara, of School House Nursery, accepts the prize for Overall Winner
Amanda O'Hara, of School House Nursery, accepts the prize for Overall Winner

The talented youngsters from School House Nursery, Kelsall, were named as Overall Winners and picked up a cheque for £100 and a bespoke Mandarin learning pack.

Smarties Day Nursery, Cotton Edmunds, and Guilden Sutton Day Nursery, Guilden Sutton, were named as first and second place runners up respectively.

Other categories included Most Promising Artist, Prize for Teamwork, and Prize for Splendid Sculptures.

All of the children who took part also received a special certificate.

Queen's Lower School gets ready to welcome the Little Artists
Queen's Lower School gets ready to welcome the Little Artists

Head of Lower School Rachel Cookson said: “The Little Artists competition is growing from strength to strength and it was a delight to welcome so many families to our school this year.

“We were so impressed by the standard of work we received, each setting had approached the challenge with a real sense of fun and produce some wonderful pieces of art.

The Little Artists exhibition
The Little Artists exhibition

“It was a very difficult task to pick just three overall winners and I would like to congratulate everyone who took part in this year’s competition, they should all be very proud of themselves.”