Artist’s Website: siobhanstanley.co.uk

Artist’s links:

Artist’s biography:

Siobhan Stanley is an emerging artist. She was born in Dublin, spent many years in London and is now based in St Leonards on Sea in East Sussex.

From the age of 10 she trained at The Royal Ballet School and gained a place in Sadler’s Wells Royal Ballet where she danced professionally as a soloist for 15 years. Before her best years were behind her, she was keen to explore the contemporary dance scene in London and when the time was right, somewhat gleefully hung up her point shoes and joined Rambert Dance Company. Siobhan danced with RDC for 4 years until making her final break with dance in order to pursue an acting career. She enjoyed 8 years working in theatre, film and TV.

Siobhan spent time in between acting jobs working for Saatchi and Saatchi where she accepted the offer of a permanent position within their new business team. She worked for 11 years until establishing her own training and coaching business. It was running her own business that gave her the time and freedom to follow the awakening of a deep desire to explore art and most specifically, painting. Since 2011 Siobhan has immersed herself in the study of classical painting, spending time in Florence at both The Florence Academy of Art and Charles Cecil Studios, with further studies at The London Atelier of Representational Art and London Fine Art Studios. Her art education has been an ongoing blend of both formal and self-taught.

The focus of much of her current output is history, gender and power. Adopting the classical traditions of representational painting, she positions her contemporary themes and human subjects within historical settings. A recent body of work collectively entitled ‘Communion’ is an exploration of the often unarticulated boundary that separates the ‘invited’ from the ‘uninvited’. She references and subverts the formally established representations of power and wealth within Elizabethan England by depicting a significant but rarely recorded group within that culture.

Concurrently she is working on a series of small still lifes exploring a witty marriage between the food paintings of the Dutch Golden Age and the farcical pretentions of modern menus.

Art Education:

Charles Cecil Studios | Florence | 2015 – 2016

London Fine Art Studio | 2014 – 2015

London Atelier of Representational Art | 2011 – 2013

Florence Academy of Art – Summer School | 2012

Exhibitions:

A Wave of Dreams | St Leonards-on-Sea | 2019

BlackShed Gallery | Robertsbridge, East Sussex |2018

Leighton House | London | 2016

Barefoot Opera is excited to auction a painting commission by Siobhan Stanley.

Siobhan’s preference is to work from live sittings, ideally a minimum of two,  but she appreciates this is not always possible and so working from a photo is also an option.  It can take several weeks or even months to complete a portrait as Siobhan’s method is to use what is known as the  ‘indirect’ method – this involves slowly layering and glazing over the initial ‘grisaille’ foundation, a layer depicting only values in black and white. 

Artist’s Website: siobhanstanley.co.uk

Artist’s links:

Artist’s biography:

Siobhan Stanley is an emerging artist. She was born in Dublin, spent many years in London and is now based in St Leonards on Sea in East Sussex.

From the age of 10 she trained at The Royal Ballet School and gained a place in Sadler’s Wells Royal Ballet where she danced professionally as a soloist for 15 years. Before her best years were behind her, she was keen to explore the contemporary dance scene in London and when the time was right, somewhat gleefully hung up her point shoes and joined Rambert Dance Company. Siobhan danced with RDC for 4 years until making her final break with dance in order to pursue an acting career. She enjoyed 8 years working in theatre, film and TV.

Siobhan spent time in between acting jobs working for Saatchi and Saatchi where she accepted the offer of a permanent position within their new business team. She worked for 11 years until establishing her own training and coaching business. It was running her own business that gave her the time and freedom to follow the awakening of a deep desire to explore art and most specifically, painting. Since 2011 Siobhan has immersed herself in the study of classical painting, spending time in Florence at both The Florence Academy of Art and Charles Cecil Studios, with further studies at The London Atelier of Representational Art and London Fine Art Studios. Her art education has been an ongoing blend of both formal and self-taught.

The focus of much of her current output is history, gender and power. Adopting the classical traditions of representational painting, she positions her contemporary themes and human subjects within historical settings. A recent body of work collectively entitled ‘Communion’ is an exploration of the often unarticulated boundary that separates the ‘invited’ from the ‘uninvited’. She references and subverts the formally established representations of power and wealth within Elizabethan England by depicting a significant but rarely recorded group within that culture.

Concurrently she is working on a series of small still lifes exploring a witty marriage between the food paintings of the Dutch Golden Age and the farcical pretentions of modern menus.

Art Education:

Charles Cecil Studios | Florence | 2015 – 2016

London Fine Art Studio | 2014 – 2015

London Atelier of Representational Art | 2011 – 2013

Florence Academy of Art – Summer School | 2012

Exhibitions:

A Wave of Dreams | St Leonards-on-Sea | 2019

BlackShed Gallery | Robertsbridge, East Sussex |2018

Leighton House | London | 2016

Artist’s links:

Website: www.suziezamit.co.uk

Facebook: www.facebook.com/suziezamitsculptor/

Artist’s biography:

Suzie studied Fine Art Sculpture at City & Guilds of London Art School. She has been a Council member of the SOCIETY OF PORTRAIT SCULPTORS since 2007, and has recently been elected Vice President. She exhibits at their annual London FACE show each May, and in 2010, at their critically acclaimed exhibition in WINCHESTER CATHEDRAL – ‘In a Sacred Place’. She was awarded the Society prize in 2013 for her small wax maquette of Barry Flanagan OBE and the Atelier Fine Art Prize for her portrait of Amina Ali – one of the kidnapped Nigerian girls, at FACE 2015.

SINCE 2009 EXHIBITION VENUES INCLUDE:

British Library
Heathrow T5
London Affordable Art Fairs
Hugh Lane Gallery, Dublin
Bedford Street Gallery, Woburn
Caxton Contemporary, Whitstable
Gallery Different, Percy Street W1
Mall Galleries, Threadneedle Prize
Ralph Lauren – London Homestores
Ashmolean Museum, Oxford
The OXO Tower, London
Victoria Art Gallery, Bath
The Gallery, Cork St W1
Sladmore Contemporary W1
The Galleria, Pall Mall

She has also designed for the ROYAL MINT including a CHARLES DARWIN bicentenary £2 coin in 2009; and BRITANNIA bullion coins in 2010, and 2016. Commissions include a posthumous portrait of the artist FRANCIS BACON; a gift for the Japanese Buddhist leader President Ikeda, of a small portrait study of CHARLIE CHAPLIN; a high relief of the diabetic doctor R D LAWRENCE for Kings College Hospital; a portrait of JANE AUSTEN; a low relief of Canadian entrepreneur PETER MUNK for Porto Montenegro.

Her portrait of the Victorian MP and founder of the National Secular Society CHARLES BRADLAUGH was unveiled in Parliament Nov 2016 and is now in the Palace of Westminster.

Suzie’s work is in private collections throughout Europe. Her studio is now in St Leonards On Sea; please call to arrange to view more of her work and discuss commissions.

Apart from private tuition, she also teaches Masterclasses at the Art Academy, S E London and will be running regular 1 and 2 day courses at her new studio in St Leonards, East Sussex.