The Liverpool Academy of Arts has not one but two new exhibitions which have opened this week.
Madalaina Murthwaite's "year in art" features in one room of the Seel Street gallery, showcasing her painted and charcoaled portraits.
And in the back room is the exhibition which accompanies a new photographic book by former model turned model Liverpool citizen Stephanie de Leng.
I attended the book launch last night before high-tailing it to the Playhouse to see Once Upon a Time at the Adelphi (great set, great costumes, a fab turn from Helen Carter as blousy Babs, super big numbers with plenty of vim but a plot which teeters I'm afraid on naffness).
Anyway, back to the book launch.
The book features more than 60 portraits of Liverpudlians - both born and bred and "adopted" and from famous faces such as Willy Russell, the late Fritz Spiegl and the like, to Stephanie's roofer and a schoolgirl boxer.
Many of those featured in the photos were in attendance.
I spotted Eithne Browne (who then stalked me to the Playhouse where she insisted on sitting behind me - only kidding Eithne!), Sir Drummond Bone, Roger Phillips, Lipa's Mark Featherstone-Witty, historian Steve Binns, June Lornie, the Matta family - of Bold Street shop fame, milkman Tommy Callagher and even Eddie, Stephanie' roofer.
Steph, an American and now a self-confessed Scouseaphile, told us: "I came to this city and fell in love with it. It reminded me of New York.
"In five years I can't wait to go out there an see the galleries, and go to great shops and feel the positive energy of the city while the rest of the country is in recession!"
