Sheila Mary Denning (1920–2015) was a British painter.

Early life

Sheila Mary Denning was born in West Sussex to an English mother and Irish GP father. After a sheltered rural childhood spent mostly in Gloucestershire and Wiltshire and two years at

Westonbirt School Westonbirt School is a co-educational independent day and boarding school for boys and girls aged 11 to 18 located near Tetbury in Gloucestershire in South West England. Founded in 1928. The historical Westonbirt House is part of the school. We ...

, she studied at the

Westminster School of Art The Westminster School of Art was an art school in Westminster, London. History The Westminster School of Art was located at 18 Tufton Street, Deans Yard, Westminster, and was part of the old Royal Architectural Museum. H. M. Bateman described ...

from 1938-1939. Her father, who disapproved of her decision to become a painter, withdrew funding mid-way through the year. Sheila’s photographer uncle John French suggested she work as a photographic fashion model, making use of her six foot height and stunning good looks. He helped her find work and she was able to continue her studies part time until the outbreak of World War II.

War service

Denning spent five years in the army where she worked as a chauffeur and driving instructor before becoming an officer with the Army Education Corps, organizing cultural events. By 1944 she was moving in

Quaker Quakers are people who belong to a historically Protestant Christian set of Christian denomination, denominations known formally as the Religious Society of Friends. Members of these movements ("theFriends") are generally united by a belie ...

circles. Appalled by the

bombing of Dresden The bombing of Dresden was a joint British and American aerial bombing attack on the city of Dresden, the capital of the German state of Saxony, during World War II. In four raids between 13 and 15 February 1945, 772 heavy bombers of the Roya ...

, she applied for exemption from military service as a conscientious objector and left the army in spring 1945.

Training

Denning resumed her painting studies after the war. She did this first at

Heatherley School of Fine Art The Heatherley School of Fine Art is an independent art school in London. The school was named after Thomas Heatherley who took over as the school's principal from James Mathews Leigh (when it was named "Leigh's"). Founded in 1845, the school ...

from 1946 to 1947 and subsequently at

Camberwell School of Arts and Crafts Camberwell College of Arts is a public tertiary art school in Camberwell, in London, England. It is one of the six constituent colleges of the University of the Arts London. It offers further and higher education programmes, including postgra ...

from 1947 to 1950, where she was taught by

William Coldstream Sir William Menzies Coldstream, CBE (28 February 1908 – 18 February 1987) was an English realist painter and a long-standing art teacher. Biography Coldstream was born at Belford, Northumberland, in northern England, the second son of coun ...

and

Victor Pasmore Edwin John Victor Pasmore, CH, CBE (3 December 190823 January 1998) was a British artist. He pioneered the development of abstract art in Britain in the 1940s and 1950s. Early life Pasmore was born in Chelsham, Surrey, on 3 December 1908. He ...

, and by Martin Bloch. Denning found the rigorous realist techniques taught at Camberwell under the influence of Coldstream of limited value and gained more from the tuition of Bloch, a German Jewish refugee who had travelled throughout Europe meeting and working with a wide range of artists. His approach showed the influence of German expressionism and he had a ‘masterful understanding of how colour and light affected atmosphere’. After leaving Camberwell, Denning studied pottery part-time at

Farnham School of Art Farnham ( /ˈfɑːnəm/) is a market town and civil parish in Surrey, England, around southwest of London. It is in the Borough of Waverley, close to the county border with Hampshire. The town is on the north branch of the River Wey, a tribu ...

Pottery

From 1952 to 1959, Denning jointly set up and ran Hawkley Pottery in Eastcombe, Gloucestershire, with Thornhill, although he was the dominant partner and she was never enthusiastic about pottery.

Painting career

From 1946 to 1994, Denning worked primarily as a portrait painter and she became a member of the Contemporary Portrait Society in the mid 1960s. She also painted landscapes and still life. She worked in oils, drew in pencil and made prints. In the 1960s she worked for a short period as an art therapist. Denning taught painting for many years at adult education institutes in West Sussex, at Brighton Technical College and occasionally at Heatherleys School of Art, as well as running private courses in portraiture and landscape from her home in Chichester.

Exhibitions

Solo exhibitions

* Clarendon Gallery, London, 1985 * Eastgate Gallery, Chichester, 1987 * Pallant House Garden Gallery, Chichester, 1996

Mixed exhibitions

* Contemporary Portrait Society *

Royal Society of Portrait Painters The Royal Society of Portrait Painters is a charity based at Carlton House Terrace, SW1, London that promotes the practice and appreciation of portraiture. Its Annual Exhibition of portraiture is held at Mall Galleries, and it runs a commissio ...

Royal Society of British Artists The Royal Society of British Artists (RBA) is a British art body established in 1823 as the Society of British Artists, as an alternative to the Royal Academy. History The RBA commenced with twenty-seven members, and took until 1876 to reach fif ...

* Pastel Society * Society of Graphic Artists * University of London Institute of Education * Ashgate and New Ashgate Gallery, Farnham * David Paul Gallery, Chichester *

Portsmouth City Museum Portsmouth Museum (aka Portsmouth City Museum) is a local museum in Museum Road in the city of Portsmouth, southern England. It is one of six museums run by Portsmouth Museums, part of Portsmouth City Council. The museum is housed in a Grade II l ...

Biennale, 1992 * York Street Gallery, Bath * Sussex Open, Brighton, 1995, 1998 * Discerning Eye Exhibition, Mall Galleries, London 1997 * Chichester Festivities Exhibition, “Space and Light”, 1999 * Bradford on Avon Arts Festival, 2007, 2008

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Denning, Sheila Mary 1920 births 2015 deaths 20th-century English women artists 21st-century English women artists Alumni of Camberwell College of Arts Alumni of the Heatherley School of Fine Art Alumni of the University of Westminster British Army personnel of World War II English women painters People educated at Westonbirt School People from West Sussex