Attack turns Janet into an artist

A POLICE 999 call handler who had never painted in her life has become an artist – after having a stroke.

Janet Heaven was left virtually blind after suffering the stroke at work.

When her sight returned, she had an uncontrollable urge to paint after being struck by a new sense of the “radiant brilliance” in her garden.

And able to work from home for North Yorkshire Police, she began picking up a brush.

Janet, 61, from Bedale, near Northallerton, said: “The garden became a source of colours from the flowers and insects. I was brought up on a farm, so nature and the countryside are important. The stroke brought them back more vividly than I’d ever experienced.”

Her sister Sandra Parker has an art gallery in Barnard Castle, Co Durham.

Sarah exhibited Janet’s work and it began to sell. Janet did an art course at Harrogate College, alongside school leavers – and passed with a distinction.

She set up the Moorlands Gallery, in

Bedale, but it closed after two days because of Covid-19. It is now open again and Janet shows her work, alongside paintings by other local artists.

Janet, who married just three months before her stroke, said: “I’d love the walls to be full of different styles and genres without limit or boundaries.”