ASPIRING artist Jasmine Aras will have her work put on display in a solo show inspired by the loss of her baby son.

Jasmine from Royal Wootton Bassett is exhibiting at the Kingdom Coffee House from March 5 for two months.

She previously created a collection in aid of the Swindon branch of the stillbirth and neonatal death charity Sands after her son River was stillborn in 2014.

Jasmine said the loss of River pushed her back into to art: “I’ve always been an aspiring artist. I’ve always wanted to paint. I studied art at college and university and did that for three years before graduating. But after that life took over, I got married and I stopped pursuing being an artist.

“Then in 2014 we lost our first son River – he was still-born at full term. After that experience I was trying to find something to do to honour our son and I kept having this idea of having an art exhibition.

“So I painted the mums and babies from my antenatal group because they would have been our son's friends and I just wanted to turn it into a positive thing.”

Jasmine added: “I wanted my art to be celebrating motherhood and the fact I was still a mother even though my baby was not with me.

"I saw it as our son gifting me time because time had always been an excuse for me. I would always say ‘I’ll pursue art when I have time’ and suddenly I had time and a purpose.

“So in 2015, on his first year anniversary I hosted my first solo exhibition of paintings. I would never have done that if it wasn’t for River and his memory. It was great and it really started everything going with my art career, the passion to get going and to pursue it with everything I had.”

Jasmine has since had another son Romeo and said the new exhibition was a great opportunity to get back creating art.

She said: “I went on and had Romeo in 2016 so my output has been very slow because obviously I’ve been a full-time mum, so I do it all in my spare time. But I’ve now created a new series of art works which are called the Colour Collection.

“Colour has always been my passion,” she said.

“I went back to basics, working on abstracts that are just about colour. I’m excited to work with the Kingdom House Association and their art fund, which looks to help local aspiring artists.”

“It’s always nerve wracking to be centre of attention but I’m really looking forward to it. You just know when something is your calling in life but I’m also doing this in memory of our son because I think whenever there’s been doubt or it has been too hard I step back and think about how he has gifted me this. So when I paint I do feel that it is me spending time with River.”

Kingdom Coffee House is at Greencote House, Isambard Way.