146. Sheila Wallis - 'A' is for Avocet

2026
Watercolour, gouache and 24 carat gold on paper.
17.8 x 17.8 x 2.5 cm

Sheila Wallis is a British artist whose practice employs traditional figurative skills across a wide range of subjects and source materials. Her work explores the formal and critical possibilities of painting and drawing, drawing on film stills, photography, archival imagery, and X-rays to examine memory, representation, and perception. In recent years, Wallis has increasingly turned her attention to the ancient art of illumination, combining contemporary concerns with historical techniques and devotional traditions.

Working across painting and drawing, her practice balances technical precision with conceptual enquiry, often investigating how images carry traces of history, narrative, and human experience. Through layered references and carefully constructed compositions, Wallis reconsiders the relationship between contemporary image culture and traditional forms of making.

She completed an MA in Fine Art (Distinction) at City and Guilds of London Art School in 2014, following a BA (Hons) in Fine Art at University for the Creative Arts in 2009.

Selected exhibitions include the SFSA Drawing Open, London (2023); SFSA Painting Open, London (2022); the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, London (2018, 2021 & 2022); the Society of Women Artists Annual Exhibition at Mall Galleries, London (2022); Art on a Postcard at The Bomb Factory, London (2022); the Annual Exhibition of the Royal Society of Painters in Water Colours at Mall Galleries, London (2020); A Change of Season at The Gallery Holt, Norfolk (2020); The Seventh View at C24 Gallery, New York (2020); the ING Discerning Eye at Mall Galleries, London (2019); Fluid at Espacio Gallery, London (2019); and the Gemini Prize Exhibition at Menier Gallery, London (2019).

Her awards include the London and the South East Regional Prize at the ING Discerning Eye (2019 and 2021), the Principal’s Prize at City and Guilds of London Art School (2014), the Columbia Threadneedle Prize (2009), the Winsor & Newton Painting Prize, and the Watts Gallery Painting Prize.

Her work is held in the ING Discerning Eye Collection, London, as well as private collections internationally.