Shelagh May was born in Maldon, Essex and at the age of five, migrated with her family to Melbourne, Australia. In 1990 she returned to the UK and settled in Brighton where she worked for many years as a Housing Officer, painting on a part-time basis. She began exhibiting in Brighton galleries in 1998 and in 2004 moved to Falmouth to paint full time. Since then her work has been shown in several galleries in Cornwall. In 2012 Shelagh returned to Australia, this time to Sydney, and for the next five years was inspired to paint the land in which she spent her formative years. Now back in England, firstly in Cornwall and more recently in Eastbourne, she is enjoying painting the UK and Europe once again.


"I work in oils, employ a simplified photo realist approach and aim to create powerful, haunting images through the use of contrasting elements, focusing in particular upon the effects of light and shade, and the relationships between man-made structures - or individuals - and their environment. My canvasses depict a strange silent world in which time stands still."