Influenced by Diebenkorn and Avery, Shirley’s work sits at the edge of figurative and abstraction and celebrates a love of colour

Background
From a very early age I have had a keen interest in drawing and painting and was surrounded by a creative family – my father was an architect and my brother an illustrator and printmaker. Art was always at my core both at school and later in my professional life in marketing and public relations, where I enjoyed creative work and collaborating with international design teams. Due to a hectic London work life, it was not until I moved to New Zealand for several years that I had the time and space to develop my own practice.

Artistic Reference Points and Influences
I am fascinated by portraying the atmospheric life of the study in my works and I like to convey my personal and emotional reaction to this. I am also drawn to natural forms and the vibrancy of their colour. My work is at the edge of figurative and abstraction and I enjoy moving between the two.

Artistic reference points and artists that I admire include Milton Avery, Richard Diebenkorn and Gary Hume among others. I also enjoy and am inspired by work by NEAC artists Robert E. Wells and John Dobbs and have been tutored by them. 

Like many artists I enjoy discovering new work on Instagram and can easily become absorbed in other artists’ work for many hours.

Preferred Medium and Style
I originally painted in acrylics but have made the shift to oil painting over ten years ago. I also enjoy working with charcoal pencil and chalk pastels particularly to capture fleeting moments of expression and the figure.

Working en plein air, I relish the freedom and connection with nature and the direct observational and energetic response it brings to my work. I also enjoy capturing the essence of new places and their unique environments. Recent travels have allowed me to paint at Uluru (Ayers Rock) in central Australia, Provence and Northern Italy.

Current Work
I am currently working on a new body of work entitled ‘Homecoming’ influenced by the rugged coast of my native Northern Ireland. These works will be larger format where I hope to push the boundaries of expressive mark making in landscape art.  I intend to exhibit some of these later in the year at the Barnes Art Fair in November and also in Ireland.

Barnes Artists
I have been a member of Barnes Artists since 2019 and I have exhibited twice yearly at the St Mary’s Church Summer Show and the November Barnes Art Fair at St Michael and All Angels. The group is an amazing and rich collection of multi-disciplinary artists and I get huge inspiration from being part of it.