Siobhan Stanley is an Irish artist based in East Sussex.  Before turning to painting, she worked professionally as a classical ballet dancer and actor.  She later trained as a painter within the atelier studio tradition, in London and Florence, including Florence Academy of Art, London Fine Art Studios and Charles Cecil Studios.

Rooted in observational and figurative painting, her practice has progressively moved beyond traditional representation towards a more exploratory and abstract approach.  Using familiar imagery as a starting point, she plays with ambiguous shifts between the literal and the symbolic.   She works principally on canvas or board with oil paint as the staple, but forays in acrylic, oil sticks, collage and ink help keep the work explorative and open.

Recent work has drawn on geology and landscape and the tension between what appears enduring yet is continually shifting and eroding. Within this is an interest in her own ageing and fragility.

Currently she is working on a series of pieces inspired by the casually overlooked spaces we transition through in our daily lives: stairs, doorways, hallways and corridors, with particular interest in what she describes as the ‘presence of absence’.

Stanley has exhibited in group exhibitions across the South East and London.  She has recently undertaken the Turps Hastings mentoring programme.

Exhibitions include:

2026 – BN9 Marine Studios (Group)

2026 – Hastings Contemporary (Group)

2025 – New Gallery, St Leonards (Group)
2024 – New Gallery, St Leonards (Group)
2024 – Rye Art Gallery, Rye (Group)
2023 – Rogue Gallery, St Leonards (Group)
2023 – Baker Mamonova Gallery, St Leonards (Group)
2023 – Rye Art Gallery, Rye (Group)
2022 – Baker Mamonova Gallery, St Leonards (Group)
2022 – Hastings Museum, Hastings (Group)
2021 – Hastings Contemporary, Hastings (Group)
2021 – Rye Art Gallery, Rye (Group)
2020 – Ryebank Gallery, Rye (Group)
2018 – BlackShed Gallery, Robertsbridge (Solo)
2016 – Leighton House, London (Group)