Seven-year-old Leilah Poulain's first artistic effort is being shown in the world famous Saatchi Gallery.
It takes years for aspiring artists to get that kind of accolade but what makes it worse for other wannabe artists is that she wasn’t even trying – her abstract picture of a penguin was painted for fun two years ago.
However, it came to the attention of the gallery after Leilah’s mother, Rebekah, 34, tried to download the artwork to a private online folder at home.
Instead, she accidentally uploaded it to a public file which automatically entered Leilah, from Torquay, into a national competition.
‘A year later I’d forgotten about it, and then I got an email saying Leilah was a Saatchi winner,’ said Rebekah.
‘I called them and said, “Thank you, but I don’t know what you’re on about”.
‘Apparently there were 1,700 applicants – but Leilah wasn’t actually one of them. Not on purpose.