MAKING art is comparatively easy. Selling art is a little more difficult.

It is a problem which has troubled artists across the generations, some having to rely on rich patrons, others on earning money away from the studio.

Merseyside is no different where there is a busy and blossoming art scene but too few investors.

Enter Warwickshire-born Lucy Byrne, who arrived in Liverpool to study at Liverpool University. She came up with the bright idea of selling local art over the internet, guaranteeing a countrywide market.

Many artists signed up to her dot-art company and later went on to exhibit at her gallery, currently based in Oriel Close, off Water Street.

But then Ms Byrne came up with another Big Business idea for artists, Eat Art.

“We wanted to look at innovative ways to get people interested in art and, in the best possible sense, educate them, giving them an understanding of how artists work.”

But she wanted to do it in a relaxed, natural environment.

The plan, simple in outline, was to have a dinner at which a selected artist would talk about his or her work.

As a location, she selected one of Liverpool’s newest hotels, the Malmaison, partly because it was a new hotel.

She asked around 70 artists on her books if they were interested and 20 of them applied to do it, a pleasing response among a group who are usually happier to let their art do their talking for them.