ABOUT Sian

My paintings are an expression of my lifelong fascination with the complexity and fleeting nature of our visual experience and the simplification into paint on a canvas. My intensely studied works from life and nature are labours of love and I strive to create works that heighten appreciation of what we observe- to really see the magnificence in light on water or the myriad of subtle flesh tones in a cheek.

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I began painting portraits in my final year as an art student and graduated in 1988 with a Bachelor of Arts in Fine Art. I began with charcoal because the drama and intensity created by such an elemental medium allows me to go big, expressive and gestural. Yet the velvety quality of willow charcoal is also incredibly sensitive. From there I progressed to oil and then gouache - which I use as a quick drying oil substitute on a small scale.

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When I paint a portrait I aspire to address the compositional and aesthetic needs of the painting, to get an honest representation and to portray the personality of the sitter. Three very different, endlessly fascinating things.

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I  divide my time between working in the Bodleian Library in Oxford, on portrait commissions, book illustrations, digital illustration commissions, animal portraits, commercial art works and my own figurative paintings.