IDENTICAL twins are on the same plane when it comes to their artistic endeavours.

Michael Youds picked up the Scottish Portrait Award in Fine Art prize for a rendering of himself and twin David.

And David has earned plaudits in the Sky Arts Landscape Artist of the Year competition, winning through to the semi-finals.

The 37-year-old siblings, originally from Great Harwood, have been spurring each other onto their notable successes.

Michael, who works for the Scottish National Galleries in Edinburgh, developed the idea for his award-winning effort on a visit to East Lancs.

He told the Telegraph: "My mum Jane likes to get the photo albums out and there was one where we were babies. I was dressed in blue and David was in red, so they could tell us apart."

When it came to the sitting for the painting, at David's Hyndburn home, each just happened to be wearing the appropriate colours.

"It's a nice coincidence we're are both doing really well around the same time," he added.

For the past two years he has seen works selected by the Royal Society for Portrait Painters. One was of a Great Harwood friend, Jonathan Exton, and the other was Sir John Leighton, his galleries' director general.

Father-of-five David, a fan of Sky Arts programming for some time, entered a view of the junction of St Hubert's Road and Princess Street and impressed producers.

He said: "For my heat they took us to the north-east and I painted the Tyne Bridge. It was my first experience of Newcastle and Gateshead as I'd never been there before."

He also held his own in the semi-final, which took artists to Cromarty, where he bowed out. Reflecting on his time on the programme, the site supervisor at Accrington Academy, is now looking to convert his garage into a studio,

"Art is something we were both good at in school and we were encouraged to do it further at college, though we took different paths," he added.