I have always enjoyed making things; getting messy and creating atmosphere, whether with paint, fabrics, light or furniture. I am inspired by beautiful countryside, buildings, colour, water and places that I love!

As a child I continuously annoyed my younger sisters by trying to capture them on paper with my pencils. After that I mostly drew and painted flowers in watercolour. More recently I joined an Art Group where I eventually developed a style of painting with which I am very happy.  Also I have a great love of photography, my recent works merge photos with collage, acrylic pallet, watercolour and pen work.

For texture in my work I often use different types of paper, including tissue, corrugated and foil.  One of my artworks ‘The East London Skyline’ was created during the 2012 Olympics. I incorporated cuttings about the Olympics from London newspapers into the painting itself. In my Venice paintings I have used handmade Venetian paper, tickets from train and boat trips! The painting then becomes alive and personal!

A painting will begin by the taking of an inspiring photograph. While out walking, holidaying or just shopping, beautiful buildings, waterways, boats, countryside, simply demand to be photographed! I take many – thank heavens for digital photography.

The next job is to search through the photos to see which will work well with my style of pallet knife painting and collage. The selected photographs are then enlarged, pixilated and often form a part of my paintings and become merged with collage, mixed media and acrylic pallet knife painting. I also usually include newspaper cuttings, tickets, wood, paper, anything which makes the picture more personal and unique! The result of these combinations create some powerful pieces of work. By using collage and many different textures it helps me to capture the vibrancy and atmosphere of the scene. I always like to work from my own photographs although I have created a couple of commission pieces.

I photographed St Paul’s from the Tate Modern on one of those perfect winter days. My daughter had bought me ‘high tea at the Tate’ as a birthday present last year. The weather was a perfectly crisp and sunny February day! A very rare treat in the middle of an awfully wet winter. I took the photograph from the restaurant on the top floor of the Tate. The resulting photograph was stunning and I hope you like the painting that emerged too! Margaret Graham did, and bought it when Easterleigh Hall was published. This is what she does – buys paintings to celebrate.

Six nights booked in Venice. We hoped for lovely weather as we were going in February! The first three days we had non-stop rain!  This did not stop me taking tons of photos and the results were stunning. The rain just seemed to enhance the colours of the beautiful Italian buildings and made the water a very deep green.

I was very pleased with the resulting painting, which also incorporated collage of matchsticks, our ticket from Venice to Verona and pieces of handmade Venetian paper.

I have lots of gorgeous atmospheric photographs to work with. A very familiar sight of a gondola full of Japanese tourists. The buildings over this canal are such a beautiful colour and I have tried to, and hopefully have, captured that! This is one of my most recent paintings.

I have some work going into a new pop up shop in Maidenhead called Craft Coop, located in Nicholsons Centre,  in an ex jewellery shop, across from Icelands, from 22nd Nov till the 4th January 2015.

For a further look at my work:

Website: www.mashup-designs.co.uk……..then…….Sharon’s Art.

My contact email is shazben58@gmail.com