Michelle Heron

Bio

Michelle Heron is a British painter whose work captures the quiet poetry of overlooked places—independent shopfronts, suburban streets, and corners of the high street that are slowly disappearing. Working in a realist style with acrylic, she documents these fading spaces with warmth, precision, and a deep sense of memory.

Her piece for Revival depicts a strange, semi-forgotten storefront discovered in South Ealing, West London—a plumbing and bathroom supply business with a cluttered storeroom overtaken by nature. “It wasn’t abandoned,” she writes, “but looked it.” The tension between neglect and life—between decay and persistence—makes the piece quietly haunting.

Michelle’s work is influenced by Edward Hopper and George Shaw for their use of colour and light to elevate the everyday. Her paintings evoke nostalgia, transience, and our personal connections to place. Though she now lives and works in rural Lincolnshire, her subject matter often returns to the London streets she once called home.

Michelle has exhibited widely, including at the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, The Lynn Painter-Stainers Prize, the Royal Society of British Artists, and the John Ruskin Prize (twice as a finalist). In 2023, she received the Regional Prize at the ING Discerning Eye, as well as awards from Artist Support Pledge and Jackson’s.