Shelly had a peripatetic childhood, travelling all over Africa and also to Argentina before settling in Oxford at the age of eleven. Living in remote areas of the tropics introduced her to the magic of different worlds and cultures and she drew and read prolifically from an early age.
She initially focused on figurative art and film making (and history of) for her degree in Fine Art at Leeds University. This was followed by an MA in film directing at the Royal College of Art School of Film and Television.She has since worked in the film industry as a Creative Affairs Executive (for a Hollywood studio), in Film Acquisitions and as an Executive Producer.
Missing the tactile process of making an image, she returned to figurative art (in parallel with her work in film) and started to explore sculpture. Her interest in light and form - not only through film making, but observational drawing, etching and watercolour, has evolved into an enchantment with the line and contour of relief sculpture and, most recently, the translucency of porcelain and glass.
Inspired by ancient Asian, Eastern and Greek iconography and sacred art - her work explores themes around vitality, physical and emotional intimacy and memory; representations of touch and being, whether they be images of sanctity or passion. She has cast her work in glass, working with glass artists Lolita Diot-Parslow and Monette Larson. She is in addition exploring evocations of physical and spiritual energy through the properties of porcelain and light. She is also working on a series of bas-relief portraits focusing on ‘the Ecstatic’.
In 2019 she presented her porcelain relief sculpture of The Resurrection to St.Gabriel’s Anglo-Catholic Church, Pimlico, in the presence of the Bishop of London. Her commission depicting Adam and Eve for St. Gabriel’s, which forms a pair with The Resurrection, was installed in 2022. Bishop Sarah now has casts of both reliefs in her chapel at The Deanery, St. Pauls Cathedral.
Shelly often works from imagination but is also drawn to observational figurative work and portraiture (both faces and nudes); drawings, paintings and relief sculpture. Portraits include: Professor Christopher Cordess, Anthony Haden-West, Derek Wyatt, the novelist TS Learner and economic historian, Victoria Bateman. For portraits she prefers to work directly from life.
Exhibitions include:
2024 - FACE, the Society of Portrait Sculptors, The Garrison Chapel, 8 Garrison Square, Chelsea Barracks, London SW1W 8BG, running from 15th August - 28th April. Her bas-relief portrait of ‘The Ecstatic’ has been selected.
2023 - Discerning Eye, Mall Galleries. Selected by Tony Adams.
2023 - Anima Mundi Pax exhibition in Santa Caterina Church, Lucca, Italy, 9th - 14th November. Three pieces, ‘Daphne’ and ‘Gardens of Light’ I and II were exhibited..
2023 - FACE, the Society of Portrait Sculptors,The Garrison Chapel, 8 Garrison Square, Chelsea Barracks, London SW1W 8BG, running from 14th August - 10th September. Her satirical relief portrait of Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg was selected.
2021 - ‘Light and Line’, a joint show with Eleanor Ekserdjian at Gallery 286, running from 11th November to 15th December at 286 Earls Court Road, London SW5 9AS.
2020 - ‘Touch’ an exhibition of small works in the Cabinet at the Chelsea Arts Club running from Tuesday 3rd November - 10th December, 143 Old Church St, Chelsea, London SW3 6EB.
2019 - ‘Duet’ an Exhibition of Small Works running from Wednesday 30th October to Sunday 3rd November 2019 at the Green and Stone Gallery, 251-253 Fulham Road, Chelsea, London SW3 6HY. See online catalogue at www.greenandstone.com.
2016 - Discerning Eye, Mall Galleries. Selected by the actress Celia Imrie.
2014 - ‘Rhythm of Line’, joint exhibition with Jane Lacy Hodge at 54 The Gallery.
2009 - Discerning Eye, Mall Galleries. Selected by Julius Bryant, Keeper of the Word and Image, V&A
2008 - Discerning Eye, Mall Galleries, selected by collector Bob Bentley of Bentley & Co.