A Wiltshire solider who turned his hand to art - finishing in the top four of BBC's The Painting Challenge - is displaying his work in Salisbury.

Sergeant Richard Salter's art work can be seen at Gallery 21, Queen Street.

The 35-year-old found his love of art from a young age and was inspired inspired by his grandmother who was a portrait painter.

Despite doing an exam at school, it was in his 20’s when his wife bought him a sketch book that he caught the bug again. He subsequently undertook an Open University BA (Hons) degree in Fine Art and since then has won a few competitions over the years.

Speaking about filming the television show Sergeant Salter, who lives and works in Wiltshire, said: “I really struggled with the challenges mainly because of the time factor. The shortest one was 30 minutes – to me that’s a study – and even the paintings were only a few hours long.

"I’m an artist who will make a lot of sketches, lots of pictures and slowly build up a work over weeks and months. It’s such a personal thing; all artists see things in a different light. It was stressful at times, all artists are passionate about their work and criticism is tough - but it was a really good experience.”

He joined the Army straight from school at the age of 16 and admits that combining the mentality required for Army life and art has created an interesting challenge for him over the years.

His career as a Signaller has seen him complete two tours of Bosnia and one in Afghanistan. On tour in Helmand he was inspired to paint after seeing the local youngsters.

The father-of-three added: “I like to explore an idea, emotion or experience and paint it so it comes across for the viewer. It was when I saw the young children and the things they don’t have, you think what if it was your kids, so I think that comes through in my work.

"I see my job as an artist observing, seeing a message you would not normally see, painting that and trying to get that across - just a bit more than a photo could actually do.”