Children's tsunami art in Wales

In Pictures: Sri Lankan children's gallery

A collection of artwork given to fundraisers in Wales by Sri Lankan children who survived the Asian tsunami, could open as an exhibition.

The paintings were given to a group in Llanwrtyd Wells, Powys, who raised £4,000 for victims of December's disaster with a charity concert.

They now hope to eventually auction the paintings to raise more money.

London's Tate Britain and the National Museums and Galleries of Wales are interested in showing the 56 pictures.

The money raised will be sent to relief workers and children in north eastern Sri Lanka - one of the worst hit areas.

Children, aged from five to 16 from the region, painted to help erase painful memories of the tsunami tragedy.

Fundraiser Gwyneth Keeble said: "The paintings are quite harrowing and children have used them to try and overcome painful memories.

The paintings highlight the pain and suffering caused by the tsunami

"Some of the children who painted the pictures lost their parents."

Other children's paintings were sent to the United States and are currently on show in Madrid.

Fundraisers in Llanwrtyd Wells, known as Britain's smallest town, want their half of the collection to be shown in Cardiff.

Fundraiser Mark Parker, 42, added: "I've been in contact with Tate Britain and people there are interested in the paintings, but ideally we'd like to exhibit them in Wales first and we're appealing for help."

The assembly government said it would look into the possibility and the National Museums and Galleries of Wales said it was the type of exhibition it would consider.

The majority of the paintings are from a town called Kalmunai in the region of Batticola in Sri Lanka.

Money raised will be split between the child artists, their schools and an orphanage in Kathiraveli, a village in Batticola.

The paintings were sent to Wales by the Living Heritage Trust, a charity working in the Batticola region.

Around 31,000 people were killed in the 26 December tsunami that smashed most of the island's shores.

An estimated one million people were displaced - and around 400,000 are still reported to be homeless.