A WEBSITE which acts as a sort of "virtual fridge" is proving to be a big hit.

Paintings by small children which proud relatives previously displayed with the help of a fridge magnet are now available on the internet.

Rob Drummond, a part-time teacher training lecturer who lives in Mitford Drive, Sharples, Bolton, was inspired by his two-year-old daughter Maya who has her own gallery featuring six pictures.

At the time he was a full-time house husband, looking after Maya while his wife Lynda went out to work as an area manager with the Aldi supermarket chain. Rob, aged 29, put his daughter's artistic efforts on the internet so that they could be seen by relatives in his home county of Hertfordshire and in America and Wales.

"A few friends had seen it and thought it was a good idea," Rob said.

"I then hit on the idea of providing a gallery for kids' pictures." The site -- www.toddlerart.co.uk HERE -- started slowly, but received a major boost when it was selected as "Website of the Day" on the Steve Wright radio programme. It has since been mentioned in the Guardian and in internet magazines.

At the moment there are 200 pictures on show -- the artists are aged between 18 months and nine -- and the site had 2,500 visitors in June.

Rob is now hoping to turn his hobby into a business venture. He has expanded the site into an online shop offering mouse mats, t-shirts, key rings and other products which are all individually printed with paintings produced by customers' children.