TO CELEBRATE Southampton Pride a city museum will be displaying artwork by an abstract LGBTQ artist.

The SeaCity Museum will be showing "Iris 02" by Lucy Ash.

Southampton City Art Gallery acquired the piece last year where it was displayed in the gallery’s main hall for Southampton Pride 2018.

The artist wanted to show her gratitude to Hampshire, where she learnt her craft.

Iris 02 will be displayed ready for Southampton Pride 2019 as part of the Southampton Stories exhibition.

The painting draws inspiration from Iris, the Greek rainbow goddess of the sky and the sea, and the messenger of the gods.

As a gay artist and activist, she has connected the rainbow of Iris to the rainbow pride flag.

Next year for Pride 2020, members of the public will be invited into the gallery to help paint mini-works for a major collaborative art display that will form part of Lucy’s art exhibition in the gallery ready for Southampton Pride 2021.

Cabinet member for housing and culture, Cllr Satvir Kaur said:

“Iris 02 is as meaningful to Southampton as it is beautiful and we’re proud of how our city embraces and champions its LGBTQ community and is developing its cultural voice. Thank you, Lucy, for gifting this art to Southampton’s collection, we’re thrilled to put it back on display this week ready for Southampton Pride. Make sure you pop into SeaCity Museum over Pride and enjoy Lucy Ash’s work. We can’t wait to see her exhibition at Southampton City Art Gallery in 2021.”

This weekend the south coast's LGBT community is getting ready to fill the heart of the city with colour and love.

More than 12,000 gay, lesbian and bisexual festival-goers and their friends will descend on Guildhall Square for the fourth annual Southampton Pride, the south's fastest-growing festival of its kind.