Shelley Thornton

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 mod...

Shelley is a member of the National Acrylic Painters’ Association (NAPA) and an Associate of the Penwith Society of Artists.

She has painted all her life. She is largely self taught although attended courses at Leeds School of Art whilst at University there doing Economics and Politics.

Shelley has participated in many solo and group exhibitions in London and the South West - including Thompson's Gallery, Marylebone, London, Mall Galleries London, Greenwich Design District, London, Chelsea Art Society, London, the Penwith Gallery, Cornwall, and the St Ives Society of Artists' galleries, Cornwall.

She exhibited at The Other Art Fair London in October 2024 and exhibited in Parallax, Kensington, London, and Roy's Art Fair, Oxo Tower, London in 2023.