Radiance 1 Artwork

Shelley brings her bold and colourful abstract painting style to life through a series of unique collections. She moved permanently to St Ives, Cornwall after the birth of her first child because of the breath-taking quality and purity of light that it provides. She has a studio in the art colony of St Ives. St Ives is a unique and special place where the light reflects from the waves like no other. Many of Shelley’s collections draw from this magical landscape. From the Vessels paintings, based on the ever-changing harbour scenes, to the Shorelines and Sunsets collections, taking inspiration from the beaches and the rolling Atlantic waves. Perhaps inevitably, when Shelley paints, she is directed by the stunning seascape around her. It is in stark contrast to the City environment where she grew up and lived and worked before. Born in Yorkshire and brought up close to the Northern hubs for coal, steel and rail – a love of industrial urban landscape has shaped Shelley’s interest in the real, unpolished architecture of that era. She also loves the sleek city skyline of today, and still spends a lot of time in London. In her work, Shelley finds herself blending images of steel furnaces and coal mines from her northern roots with modern cityscapes and the contrasting beauty of Cornwall. Her artworks represent a strong melding of the seeming dichotomy of the city vista and the coastal environment. It is not simply the landscape that Shelley abstracts from however. She is driven by the feelings, interpretations and stories that run through our day to day world. Her works express a moment in time and of life. She combines textures often using salvaged materials such as sand, salt, cement, brick and rust. These natural or industrial mediums bring their own histories to bear on the reading of the artworks – providing fragments of memory to her creations. Often her work draws inspiration from her passion for music. Lyrical elements add to the narrative and mixed media style of some paintings whilst, in others, music has led to the idea and resulting feel for creativity as Shelley builds the piece up each layer at a time. She often adds emotive song lyrics with the bold colour. Texture and symbolism surface within the blocks of colour to tell more comprehensive stories. They evoke a deep sense of place and the passing of time.