When artist Antonia Rolls lost her partner Steve Shaw to liver cancer just over two years ago, she couldn't bear the thought of him simply fading out of existence.

With his permission she painted the last three weeks of his life as the cancer began to take hold and from next week she will be exhibiting those paintings at a house in Worple Road with the aim of helping other people overcome the death of someone close.

"When he died I had only known him for about 18 months," explains Antonia.

"We just worked and it was like I hadn't been breathing until the night I met him, yet 18 months later he was dead.

"Through that time I looked after him and watched him fade as he got more ill.

"After he died it was so hard because he had just gone and had disappeared.

"With his permission I charted his illness and after he died I just thought he can't just fade and disappear out of existence.

"So I painted a memorial to him and his spirit and his strength but while I was doing that people came to the studio and were seeing the other paintings and saying that looks like my dad or my son who died of cancer and that's how it occurred to me that everyone has the same situation."

When exhibited in her home county of West Sussex, Rolls paintings received a mixed response with some not favouring their theme.

"Some people don't like the images because they are very frightening in that they show how one dies," she says.

"Some people really don't like that.

"There was an article in the paper which caused a bit of controversy and they were complaints but nobody has actually complained to me.

"The responses I have had to my face is the huge amount of support from people who know what I am doing because it has happened to them.

"There is a lot of support from people who want to talk about life after death.

"It is primarily about my experience of Steve dying but I also want to know what other people feel and what happened to them.

"I hope it will end up as a universal experience, with people coming and telling their story."

A Graceful Death, 127 Worple Road, Wimbledon, February 24 to 28, 10am to 5pm. See agracefuldeath.blogspot.com.