Artist Joyce Thorn pays tribute in her latest exhibition to her son and two grandsons who all died tragically.  Her show in the foyer at Chichester’s Oxmarket Centre of Arts from October 25 until November 6 will be a commemoration of her loss. 

“My grandson Ben was aged 24 and was very fit and well, a big strong chap,” she says.  "He was a gentle giant and he just died in his sleep.  It was very tragic. 

“They put it down to a fault in the electrical make-up of his heart.  It was similar to cot deaths.  There was no warning whatever.  It took a month or so before they could come to a conclusion. 

“It was terrible for my son and his wife and for Ben’s brother Gary who had a brain tumour when he was six years old.  He was treated at University College Hospital in London and was sent home in remission. 

“But Gary died a year after Ben.  He was 30.  He suddenly became ill again.  He had been working fine until then.  We think that it was the stress of losing his brother.  It just brought the brain tumour back.  He ended up in St Barnabas Hospice.  They nursed him at home for 12 months which was a great strain on my son Tony and his wife. 

“My son owned the Skylark boat cruises on the River Arun.  A fortnight after Gary’s death, my son was working on the steps by the river and he just dropped dead with a sudden heart attack.  He hadn’t been well.  My son could not cope with the stress.” 

Tony, who lived in Littlehampton died in April last year, aged 50.  He left a wife and their twin daughters Paula and Cheryl. 

Mrs Thorn, aged 82, said it had all been a terrible time: “But I am pretty strong mentally.  One has to cope, and my painting is keeping me going. 

“Because I can’t run a marathon or do whatever young people do for charity, I thought I would do an exhibition as a tribute to them with all the proceeds going to charity.  I use watercolours, line and wash mainly.  I paint landscapes mostly.  There are other things that I do, but that is my main interest. 

“I started painting at school in Birmingham just before the war.  My grammar school was very good in the art department.   I did pass art school, but war broke out and I couldn’t go. 

“But I have always painted.  I brought up four children and got more back to painting since then.” 

She says she feels the deaths haven’t changed her painting, but the painting is certainly a way of keeping going and keeping busy.