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National Acrylic Painters’ Association
Shelley Thornton
Cornwall
Shelley Thornton is a mixed media painter
based in St Ives, Cornwall. She creates vibrant,
abstract paintings in acrylic, oil and other mixed
media; often featuring quotes from lyrics,
literature and poetry. Her work is both textural
and textual.
Shelley’s paintings are hard-edged in style,
influenced by her own thoughts, feelings,
emotions and reactions to the modern-day world.
They evoke a deep sense of place and the passing
of time and represent a strong melding of the
seeming dichotomy of the city vista and the
coastal environment.
As a young child growing up in the urban, still
industrial ‘badlands’ of South Yorkshire, beauty
was not always evident. As such, Shelley loved
escaping to a more natural habitat whether to the
coast, the Yorkshire Dales or the Peak District.
During this early childhood period, she made
meticulous drawings of birds and developed a
keen interest in form and function. Through her
teenage years her artwork developed. Moving
away from nature, still life and portraiture she
explored more surreal and abstract forms;
influenced by music, literature, arthouse cinema,
and modern art.
Even though Shelley’s ensuing business career
allowed her to work all around the UK and
internationally, she never lost touch of her first
love and she continued to paint and develop her
style. She has lived in Cambridge, London,
Surrey and now Cornwall as well as Yorkshire,
and her paintings possess a strong command of
bold colours, and geometrical, architectural and
industrial shapes and structure.
Shelley works predominantly on canvas and
boards and likes to sketch out the composition
beforehand. There is a preciseness to her
approach and, once the foundation of white paint
is laid to the surface, she will juggle different
media (acrylic, oil, sand, salt, textured paste,
clock parts etc), tools (rulers, set squares,
compasses) along with decisions on colour,
shape, tone and subject matter. She will also
choose what words, phrases or quotes, if any, to
add.
Find out more about Shelley at:
https://www.artlantic.co.uk
Mobile: 07788 727687