AN artist from Malmesbury who had a painting accepted into the Royal Oil Painters Institute (ROI) in London last year, will be exhibiting at the town hall this month.

Nicki Heenan, 53, had paintings accepted for the Chelsea Art Society, New English Art Club and the ROI and shortlisted for the Royal Society of British Artists last year.

This year she will be exhibiting in Switzerland, Italy, Yorkshire and Ireland, where she has been awarded a fellowship by an American foundation to produce a body of work.

She will also be hanging her new show called Tempest at the John Bowen Gallery in the Malmesbury Town Hall February 8-26.

Tempest will feature paintings of the coast from around Aberystwyth, Wales and Co Mayo, Ireland where she has been doing research.

Nicki’s recent success has followed the decision to focus whole-heartedly on her painting.

“In 2014, I made the decision to paint full time and to let go of a number of commitments that I had at the time,” she said.

“Expanding my knowledge of painting materials and technical methods saw a change in my work into a deeper level of abstraction of the landscape and so came about this group of paintings.”

One of the highlights of Nicki’s year in art last year was her paintings Field of Vision and Cross Roads being selected from over a thousand entries to be hung at the ROI.

She said: “It was a huge honour to hang with some the greats in British art and have the opportunity to meet and talk with the president of the ROI, a West Country painter, Ian Cryer who looked at my paintings.

“All the big names of art were there including Ken Howard and Peter Wileman.

“Several people from Malmesbury came to the show and were very impressed with the standard of work exhibited.

“Some of my working techniques and paintings will be featured in a book being published in the US on cold wax painting and I am also undertaking a fellowship in Ireland later in the year working on a series of paintings for exhibition there so 2016 is shaping up to be very exciting.”

The acceptance came at the end of a busy year having had paintings accepted into the Chelsea Art Society and the New English Art Club, again selected from a large number of entries.

To find out more about Nicki’s art visit nickiheenan.com