Euston Bookshop, that has little promise of containing any books at all, is painted sympathetically by the artist who mourns the loss of shops like these on our streets. 

Michelle Heron describes this as "The kind of bookshop that needs its windows blacked out... I used to walk past it a lot but never saw anybody enter or exit."

Michelle connects us to the shops on our high streets that may look dilapidated or unloved, but that have a surprisingly familiar and nostalgic grip on us.

Her work is characterised paintings of faded shop signs, graffiti on overlooked street furniture or places on the verge of being lost. She wants to record these things before they are lost to time or to the ever prevent wave of gentrification.

The paintings depict rich histories of a bygone era but also a sense of a sinister, eery and dystopian landscape. Ubiquitous shops once owned by generations of the same family now hang on the verge of being replaced with a less personal service, devoid of interaction and community.

Accolades

Fine Art (BA Hons), University of Hertfordshire, 2002. 

Awards: Shortlisted for The Lynn Painter-Stainers Prize 2016. A finalist on Sky Arts Landscape Artist of the Year 2018. Finalist in The John Ruskin Prize 2016 and 2019.

Group Exhibitions include: The 157th Society of Women Artists Annual Open Exhibition, 2018. The Summer Exhibition, The Royal Academy, London 2017. The National Open Art Competition, 2016.