Arlene Sharp is a contemporary painter living and working in London. In 2023, she graduated with a BA (Hons) Painting from the University for the Creative Arts.  Arlene draws inspiration from the natural world, exploring how to express it through space, form, colour and light. Walking in her local woodland, which provides a constant source of inspiration, as well as travelling further afield, Arlene gathers visual information through sketching, photography and note-taking. Working in acrylics, inks, painted collage and mixed media, her paintings evoke a sense of place and reflect her personal experience within the landscape.

‘Playing with concepts of 'space' and 'place', Open College of the Arts 2023 graduate and New Blood Emerging Art Prize nominee Arlene Sharp's canvases explore familiarity and abstraction through bold use of colour and natural forms. Intrigued by our relationship with nature and natural landscapes, Arlene's work reflects an experience of space that goes beyond the plane of physical reality to encompass experience, memory and perception. By translating thoughts and experiences into visual form, these semi- abstract works ask how the process of painting can help us to truly notice a space, and inhabit it in a more meaningful way.’ (New Blood Art commentary, 2023)