Sylvia’s background stems from formal art school training in London and Lancashire. She frequently experiments with surfaces and mixed media, favouring wooden panels, as this affords greater freedom to develop working with a range of materials and techniques. Drawing and painting using large chunks of graphite, with layers of gesso and acrylic, she uses a reduced palette in greys and blues, with occasional flashes of gold leaf.

Her paintings of sea birds native to the coast and islands along the Atlantic seaboard is one part of her long-standing interest in celebrating wildlife. How we interact with animals is central to her work, and she sees it as an important indicator of our consciousness.