A GRIEVING artist who lost her baby son to stillbirth poured her “heart and soul” into her first exhibition celebrating motherhood this weekend

Jasmine Aras’ son River died in the womb days before he was due to be born in November last year. In a tribute to River Jasmine channelled the traumatic experience into painting, culminating in the launch of her first exhibition, Flow River Flow at the Core, Old Town on Saturday (NOV 14).

Losing her precious first child with husband Muti gave Jasmine a renewed focus to get back into art.

“I didn’t paint for a long time but this made me wonder why I stopped. There is a beauty in motherhood, creation and love and that is what I feel when I look at the portraits,” the 31-year-old from Royal Wootton Bassett said.

“I am still a mother even though I don’t have a baby. This was a celebration of motherhood and the joy and love that comes with that."

The exhibition featured 15 joyous portraits of Jasmine’s friends and ante-natal group members whose babies were due at the same time as River.

“I wanted people to see the love between a mother and her child, and also celebrate River through his friends which is what these babies would have been as he grew up.

“The response was fantastic, we had over 50 people there and we must have raised over £2,000. It exceeded all my expectations."

Jasmine, who is now 22 weeks pregnant with her second child, praised the restorative power of art.

“It kept me going even when I had bad days. Meeting all the babies really helped me and it gave me an inner peace, and it made me realise that my dreams for River were still there and he was still with us.”

“This made me realise I should have got into art before and it gave me the motivation. I would still cry every day but it’s made me stronger."

All proceeds from Flow River Flow will be donated to charity Swindon SANDS (stillbirth and neonatal death charity). Jasmine said the sensitivity and care shown to her by the charity made her determined to help.

“SANDS helped us when we couldn’t even think. They gave us a special memory box with a little bit of River's hair, some foot and handprints and that’s has been such a comfort to me. I never would have thought of that.

“I realised I wanted to give something back to SANDS because of what they did for me"

Jasmine even defied her own expectations when she stood up to give a speech at the event.

“I managed to make it through without crying which amazed me. River has kept me going through this, he's always with me."

To donate to SANDS via the exhibition, visit http://www.justgiving.com/flowriverflow.

To find out more about Jasmine and her work, visit her blog at www.flowriverflow.wordpress.com.