Shelly is a freelance wildlife artist who's passion for wildlife, travel and conservation are constant factors in the development and realisation of her work. Shelly aims to emulate both the beauty and fragility of the natural world and present that to her audience in an accessible way through her work.
Shelly's work is created in a highly unusual way combining a variety of techniques both traditional and contemporary. She starts working by hand with strong, fluid line drawings, painted textures, water colour washes and found textiles which she then brings together digitally, layering up all of the hand rendered elements with the line drawings on top and the colour, textures and washes at varying levels of opacity underneath.
Her finished illustrations are stored as detailed files sometimes comprising over 150 layers meaning that their only output is as digital prints. Shelly prints all her illustrations using the Giclee technique a form of archival quality digital printing. All the prints on this site are sold in short run limited editions of just 50. The prints are not a copy or scan of an original piece but an original output for the work in their own right, making them highly unusual and collectable pieces of art which feature in private and public collections all over the world.
As well as showing her work in galleries Shelly also undertakes commercial commissions for illustration work, her list of clients includes BBC Wildlife Magazine, The National Trust, The RSPB, WWF, Worcestershire Wildlife Trust, The Vincent Wildlife Trust and The Radio Times. In 2017 Shelly was chosen as the Scott Polar research institute's Antarctic Artist in Residence, her work from the trip will be used to educate people about the beauty but extreme fragility of this incredible part of the world.
Shelly also runs courses and sketching holidays, she is a tutor for the online art school Nature Studio as well as leading in person courses in the UK and abroad for other companies and organisations. To join her on a trip to France, USA, Zambia or beyond then do get in touch or sign up to her newsletter for the latest trips, news and offers.
To see examples of Shellys work visit The Artist's Gallery in Ludlow, Shropshire where her work sits alongside her other coopertive members work. Open Daily.
