A SWINDON-born artist has returned for her first exhibition in the town in 40 years.

Janet Boulton grew up on a farm near Blunsdon in the 1930s, studying at Swindon School of Art before being tempted to the bright lights of London – and Camberwell’s famous art school.

She came back to Swindon in the 1960s, teaching art part-time at Commonweal School and Hreod Burna.

Her last exhibition in her home town came as she left for Abingdon, Oxfordshire, displaying paintings inspired by views from her school windows at Swindon Museum and Art Gallery in 1977.

The artist, whose work has been shown around the world, has returned to the Bath Road gallery for an exhibition of her watercolour paintings and paper relief works. The new show ends next month.

At a talk on Thursday, organised by the Friends of the museum, Janet Boulton said: “I tend to paint the places I have fetched up in. The school I worked in and my isolated cottage near Marlborough were my main subjects.

“Being here now is really extraordinary. My last exhibition here marked the end of a period and the beginning of a different way of living.”

She told the Swindon audience that she had wanted to be an artist since she was 13-years-old – adding that it was “boredom at school” that had pushed her into an artistic career.

“I had a vital moment,” she said. “I was sitting at one of those old wooden desks, holding a primrose and making a drawing of it.”

The museum crowd watched a new film showing Janet at work. It revealed how the artist experiments with making works out of paper, recycling scraps to create a paper mulch that she turns into relief sculptures.

A number of these works are currently on display at the Swindon Art Gallery.

Janet Boulton: Watercolours is at Swindon Museum and Art Gallery until Saturday, January 20. The exhibition is free.

For more, visit: www.swindonmuseumandartgallery.org.uk.