Shelley Thornton brings her bold and colourful abstract painting style to life through a series of unique collections. 

She moved permanently to 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 – 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, the skies, 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 and often adds emotive song lyrics with 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.

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 willjuggle acrylic and oil paints with 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. She will also choose what words, phrases or quotes, if any, to add.

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.

Shelley’s artwork is found in private and corporate collections worldwide and she has participated in many solo and group exhibitions – curated both by galleries and agents, or by herself or with others. For example in London she has been selected by Thompson’s Galleries for a Contemporary Cornwall Show, by the Chelsea Society of Arts for its summer show, and has participated in the Other Art Fair. She also had her first Artist in Residence at the iconic 5-star Headland Hotel above Fistral Beach in Cornwall, and her work was selected to feature in Huawei’s new HQ in Shenzen, China. She is a member of the National Acrylic Painters’ Association (NAPA) and an Associate of the Penwith Society of Artists. She has recently been long and shortlisted for a number of awards – notably Aesthetica, the Visual Art Open and the VAA’s Artist of the Year.