The Willoughby Memorial Art Gallery in Corby Glen is preparing to host a special memorial exhibition this weekend showcasing the artistic legacy of beloved local resident Mona Storey, who passed away last August at the age of 89.

Paul and Kitty Storey, both currently residing in New York, have made the transatlantic journey back to Lincolnshire to personally curate this posthumous solo exhibition honoring their late mother. The exhibition will take place on Saturday and Sunday, August 9-10, from noon to 5 p.m., with all proceeds from artwork sales being donated to an arts-based charity.

For the Storey siblings, this exhibition represents far more than a simple art show – it serves as both a fitting tribute to their mother and a visual celebration of her life, while finally giving Mona the solo exhibition she never pursued during her lifetime.

"She had a whole art room full of her paintings, but she never really pushed to do an exhibition," Kitty explained. "I think it was more the process of the painting that she loved." Throughout her artistic journey, Mona consistently played down suggestions for a solo exhibition, preferring to focus on the creative process itself rather than public recognition.

Remarkably, Mona only discovered her passion for painting after retirement, beginning her artistic journey through art classes with instructor Liz Underwood at Grantham College. Despite starting relatively late in life, she proved incredibly productive, creating approximately 200 paintings over the course of her artistic career. Her dedication to the local art community extended beyond her personal work – she also helped establish an art group in Swinstead that continues to meet weekly to this day.

The decision to organize this memorial exhibition arose from practical considerations as much as emotional ones. "We spent a lot of time after mum passed and during that whole process and realizing that this house and the 200 paintings in it, where are they going to go and what's going to happen with the house," Paul explained. "It dawned on both of us that at some point, we were not going to be able to own 200 paintings and they should be out in the world. So then it was well we'll do an exhibition and her friends can see them."

Mona's life story reads like a journey across England's diverse regions. Born in London, she moved to Morpeth in Northumberland during her teenage years when her parents returned to their native North East. It was there that she met her future husband Brian in a charming, old-fashioned courtship story. "He was a clerk in the bank, and my mum worked in an estate agents a couple of buildings down the street," Kitty recalled. "She would take money to the bank from the estate agents and somehow they hit it off."

Brian's career advancement with the bank led the family through several relocations, first taking them to Nottingham before they settled in Oakham in the late 1960s when Brian was appointed to manage a branch in Leicester. During their time in Oakham, the couple became deeply involved in community life and charitable work, actively participating with organizations like the Round Table and the Lions Club.

After a brief period in Derbyshire, retirement brought the couple back east to Corby Glen approximately 30 years ago. This new chapter of their lives allowed both Mona and Brian to finally pursue creative interests that had been set aside during their career-building and child-rearing years. While Mona discovered her talent for painting, Brian indulged his passion for photography.

"She started painting in the last 30 years, but prior to that she didn't really do it," Paul noted. "Our mother came from a very working class background in the north of England. It wasn't frowned upon, but having children and trying to own a house, you don't just sit around painting."

The artistic inclination appears to run in the Storey family. Both Paul and Kitty have successfully built careers around their creative talents. Kitty works as a costume designer for television and has recently developed what she describes as an "obsession" with painting, while Paul has established himself as a freelance photographer in New York City.

Their path to New York began with Kitty's fashion career. "I used to design clothing and ended up selling clothing to a couple of New York boutiques and just kind of fell in love with the city," she explained. "And then Paul came there a few years later, to stay with me and I think he also fell in love with it. We just really liked the lifestyle over there."

Beyond her artistic pursuits, Mona was known for her distinctive personality and varied interests. A lifelong Guardian reader and Labour supporter, she was also an unlikely but devoted fan of pop star Robbie Williams, even keeping a life-size cutout of the former Take That member in her home to greet visitors.

Perhaps most notably, Mona had an irrepressible compassion for animals that made her legendary in local circles. "She was a prolific animal rescuer," Paul recalled with obvious affection. "If she went within a mile of Three Counties Dog Rescue in Bourne, she'd come back with another animal." This compulsive tendency to rescue animals meant that visitors to the Storey home were likely to encounter various four-legged friends alongside Mona's artwork.

Despite her diminutive stature – standing just 4 feet 10 inches tall – Mona's personality was anything but small. "She was quite the character," Paul remembered fondly. "Her friends called her the pocket rocket because she was this ball of energy."

The memorial exhibition at Willoughby Memorial Art Gallery represents not just a showcase of artistic work, but a celebration of a life fully lived – from her working-class origins in the North, through her family years in various English towns, to her creative flowering in retirement in the Lincolnshire countryside. For Paul and Kitty, ensuring these 200 paintings find good homes while raising money for arts charity provides a fitting final chapter to their mother's artistic story, one that began with retirement art classes and blossomed into a substantial body of work that will now have the opportunity to bring joy to others, just as the process of creating them brought joy to Mona herself.