A MEMORIAL exhibition is being held at Malvern Theatres in honour of artist Vivien Bromley, who died last month at the age of 76.

Mrs Bromley died of breast cancer, having been diagnosed with the disease in November last year.

The exhibition is on Sunday, October 18, and her family are inviting the general public and all who knew and worked with her to celebrate her life and work between 2pm and 5pm.

Mrs Bromley moved to Malvern over 30 years ago after she attended an art class here and fell in love with the area. She had previously lived in Enfield, north London, and the move followed her husband's retirement.

She had always taken a great delight in the English countryside, with keen interest in woodland scenes and the reflective nature of pools and rivers, but the Malvern Hills became and always remained her main source of inspiration.

After a childhood spent in Istanbul and Ankara, where she produced and sold Christmas cards to British embassy staff, Vivien came to England in 1954.

Here, as a self-taught artist, she began a lifelong passion for painting, initially concentrating in oils and acrylics, then progressing to watercolours and then pastels.

Daughter Jenny Smith said: "Greatly influenced by the impressionists, her exuberant early experiments in abstract colour and form have now come full circle with her more recent works giving new interpretations of classic views.

"These adaptations reveal how this versatile artist continued to develop her style and technical abilities throughout her lifetime."

As well as showing her work in many Malvern galleries, Mrs Bromley has exhibited in the Guildhall in the City of London, the Mall Galleries and Central Hall Westminster, and in 1989 she was invited to become a member of the Society of Women Artists.