Paula Sharples was born in Brighton on the south coast in 1951. She gained a degree in Textile Design at Reigate School of Art in Surrey in the late 60's and spent 15 years as a freelance textile designer for the international furnishing and bedding market, creating designs for companies such as Coloroll and John Wolf Decorative Fabrics in the USA and also Portmeirion and Churchill China. The landscape surrounding her home in the Peak District and the North Norfolk coast, Devon and Cornwall, have all significantly influenced her work.
She works on gesso prepared board with acrylics, ink and graphite in layers and uses a combination of still life with landscape background. She also paints on gold leaf which she finds beautiful to work on and gives her work a different feel. Her use of colour and pattern is evidence of her past in textile and ceramic design.
'Working in acrylic,ink and graphite on linen and also paper, I try to capture the Derbyshire landscape in the beautiful Peak District where I live and work.
I have always loved pattern, so there is usually a decorative element in my paintings. Working as a freelance designer for 15 years producing furnishing, wallpaper, bedding and ceramic designs has also greatly influenced my work.'
SELECTED EXHIBITIONS
2017 Number Four Gallery, St Abbs, Northumberland [group exhibition]
2016 Old Station Gallery, Rowsley. Open exhibition
Kirk Ireton Open Gardens, Kirk Ireton
2015 Derbyshire Open Arts, Bakewell
2013 Derbyshire Open Arts, Cromford Mill
2012 Thoresby Hall Gallery, Thoresby, Notts [group exhibition]
Ferrers Gallery, Staunton Harold, Leicestershire [group exhibition]
Derbyshire Open Art
2011 Studio 61, Holloway, Derbyshire. [solo exhibition]
Derbyshire Open Art. Chesterfield, Derbyshire
2010 Cromford Mill Gallery, Cromford, Derbyshire [group exhibition]
Derbyshire Open Art, Cromford Mill, Derbyshire