Siriol Sherlock made her name as a botanical artist, exhibiting widely, teaching and writing books on the subject. She is widely recognised as one of the world's top contemporary botanical artists.

In recent years family life, building two homes and 'other large projects' have taken over and very little of her work has been exhibited for a decade. She has recently built an art studio in her garden in West Sussex and is feeling inspired to get back to work whenever there is time - although, as all artists know, there is never enough time and always other priorities! However, she is slowly getting back to work - albeit with less of the botanical illustration and more experimental new work because, in Siriol's words:

"As I get older I don't seem to have the time or patience for botanical illustration. Watercolour will always be my first love and where my main expertise lies, but I am currently enjoying the challenge of working in oils and painting the landscape.

Colour, light effects, tonal contrasts and the beauty of our amazing natural world have always been the main inspiration behind my work and continue to inspire my new work."

From 2012 to 2018 Siriol gave up painting and worked tirelessly for an exciting arts initiative in Hampshire. Rum’s Eg (Old English name for Romsey) was a contemporary craft gallery and Arts space in Bell Street, Romsey run as a social enterprise by Hampshire Art & Craft CIC to support artists and makers by selling their work and employing them to teach courses whilst educating and engaging the public in art and craft. It was opened in 2012 to add to the attractions of this heritage market town as an accessible, affordable gallery with a café and education spaces. The gallery represented over 150 talented Artists & Craftsmen working or living within 70 miles of Romsey and became a renowned centre of excellence in the South of England – helping to conserve the rich and varied art and craft of this region by encouraging public awareness, education and participation and providing creative opportunities for all ages, abilities & walks of life. ‘Arts for Wellbeing’ community projects were facilitated and supported by HA&C CIC. Very sadly Rum's Eg was not able to secure Arts funding for further development and was not resilient enough to withstand difficult high street trading in 2017/18 which included the closure of Bell St for street enhancements from September 2017 to May 2018. However, our legacy lives on through the artist networking groups, links, friendships, community arts groups and charities that were formed.

This website shows examples of Siriol's past work as she currently has nothing to sell and needs to get painting again!

NB: Copyright of all images on this site remains with the artist,  unless rights have been sold by agreement. A note from Siriol to aspiring artists : ' I hope my paintings may help and inspire you but please do not copy them to sell or show in an exhibition - it has happened before!