Shirley Seymour - Artist and Gallery Owner

Portrait and interview - 1994

Shirley was born in Birmingham in 1935 where she attended art school and the Birmingham College of Art, studying industrial design.  She is married with two children, and lived for the greater part of her life in Battle in East Sussex.  She now lives in Totnes where she paints, exhibits and holds one-woman shows.  Her work is in many countries including America, Hong Kong, Australia, Finland and the Continent.

Shirley opened the Seymour Gallery in June 1993, initially to show her own work and that of her friends and associates, most of them from Mary Clare’s studio Atelier Dix.

The building is seventeenth century but a part dates back to Elizabethan times.  It is situated at the end of a courtyard just above East Gate.  The gallery occupies two floors, most of the space being devoted to showing works of south-west artists.  Space is also reserved for individual shows which usually last three to four weeks.  Shirley’s preference is for painting and sculpture, but a selection of ceramics and wood turning is usually represented.

Shirley is now in her second year of running the gallery and is being approached by artists from various parts of the country hoping for exhibition space.  She is generally happy to accept their work as it helps to prevent the gallery from becoming too provincial.

Update:  Shirley's gallery has since closed.