A BLACKBURN student has been accepted on to her dream degree course at a prestigious London art school.

Blackburn College art student Jessica Hayes is set to study for a BA Honours Degree in Drawing at Camberwell College of the Arts.

The 19-year-old, who achieved a distinction in her college diploma, recently had her final collection displayed as part of an exhibition by University of the Arts London (UAL) at the Chelsea School of Art.

The school’s alumni boasts a number of Turner Prize winners including Howard Hodgkin and Malcolm Morley as well as celebrities including the Clothes Show’s Jeff Banks, Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen and Oscar winning actor Tim Roth.

Jessica is now looking forward to moving in the country’s foremost art circles after completing her art and design diploma at Blackburn College where she achieved a distinction.

The teenager, who describes her artwork as ‘drawing with smoke’, uses lit candles to create scorch and smudge marks on paper and turn them into portraits.

Her final collection was inspired by photos she took of children in a Capetown nursery school during a Blackburn College trip to South Africa earlier in the year.

The former Witton Park pupil put her successful application to Camberwell down to specialist support she received from her tutors.

She said: “I’d only been looking at art colleges in the north west and didn’t think I really had a shot at any of the London schools, but my tutors encouraged me to apply.

“I’m over the moon – it’s great to get on the course I really wanted”.

The exhibition featuring her artwork included students from across the country who are studying for UAL qualifications.