Annabelle Shelton

Bio

Annabelle Shelton, born in London, holds an MA in Fine Art Practice from Birmingham City University, which she obtained in 2001. Shelton is based in an old Victorian school building in the city of Milton Keynes, where she makes paintings and drawings.

In the summer of 2010, Shelton was a resident artist at the Aberystwyth Arts Centre in Wales, located on the university campus, where she took part in the main gallery show Five. In the same year, she was selected for the John Moores Painting Prize. In 2011, she had a solo show at Chapter in Cardiff.

Shelton has provided critical texts and reviews of national exhibitions for the A-N Artists Information Company. She has shown her work with the Jill George Gallery, Rebecca Hossack Gallery, Rarity Gallery (Greece), Wychwood Gallery, and Rise Art. She was also awarded the second-prize Neo:artprize 2013 for Black Holes at Weymouth. In 2015, Shelton’s work appeared in the Sunday Times Watercolour Exhibition and the Discerning Eye, selected by curator Stephen Snoddy at the Mall Galleries, London.

In 2026, Shelton was included in the Landscape Open at the Salisbury Museum and is currently showing at The Rodd for the Sidney Nolan Art Prize summer show. Her work has been sold at many national and international art fairs and is held in numerous private and public collections around the world.

Statement

My work begins with observation, recording the comings and goings of people on the streets and at the beach. In the city, the dynamics of the street are orchestrated by architecture, walkways, and signs, where changing lights dictate the flow of the space. By eliminating the surrounding matter, the distinct lines, clusters, and energies of these human groupings are revealed.

The beach, by contrast, plays host to a different kind of gathering, almost a religious experience of worshipping the sun, sand, and sea. People arrive with all their paraphernalia to soak up the sun and the vibrant atmosphere. Stripped of the seascape itself, the composition relies on the straight lines and semi-circles of the bays, where the ocean cuts the frame like a sharp margin on a page.

These photographs are ultimately translated into paintings and drawings on sprayed white aluminum panels. Chosen for their clean surface and ease of flow, these panels allow watercolour to melt and float, and graphite to blend seamlessly. The final works are lacquered to seal and finish the surface.

Artworks by Annabelle Shelton