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. Working in acrylics 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)
Selected exhibitions & nominations
2025 Joint Exhibition: ‘River Landscapes: Edges and Echoes, White Cube Gallery, Harrow Arts Centre, Harrow
2025 Harrow Open Studios The Trilogy exhibition
2024 Harrow Arts Society, President’s Prize
2024 ‘Curious Space: Transitions in Landscape’, Willesden Gallery, London
2024 Harrow Arts Society Annual show, Harrow, Arts Centre, Harrow
2024 Jackson’s Painting Prize longlist
2023 New Blood Emerging Art Prize nominee
2023 Jackson’s Painting Prize longlist
2022 Solo Exhibition ‘Wild About Nature’, Harrow Weald
2022 Solo Exhibition ‘Painted Space - Remembering Gilberts Lake’, Harrow Arts Centre, Harrow
2022 Freelands Painting Prize nominee
Education
2023 BA (Hons) Painting (1st Class), 2023 University for the Creative Arts