Sally works from her studios in London and on the island of Guernsey. She paints in oils on linen and often uses gilding in her work. Her main interest lies in figurative art and portraiture. Her work has a loose, rough, yet realistic feel. She prefers her work not to be tied to a particular place or time.
She trained as a portrait painter at London Fine Art Studios and then at the Heatherley School of Fine Art in Chelsea, where she was awarded the Heatherley Portrait Prize in 2019 by Daphne Todd OBE. Her work is rooted in traditional atelier methods and materials, but with a contemporary palette and language that has developed over time. She works from life and also uses photographs for historical pieces. Materials are important in her practice and she likes to work with course-weave linens, high quality oil paints and 24ct gold.
In 2024 Sally was selected to be part of the Vogue Gallery in the print edition of British Vogue's May, June and July editions. Earlier in the year, her commissioned portrait of Verena Holmes was unveiled at the Institution of Mechanical Engineers in Westminster, London, where Verena Holmes had been the first female elected member in 1924.
Sally has completed several other notable commissions that have been unveiled in embassies, institutions, galleries and private homes on both sides of the Atlantic. In 2020 she was commissioned by Art for Guernsey to paint Czech war hero Jaroslav Novak as part of its cultural diplomacy project. It was first unveiled in Guernsey by the Czech Ambassador to the United Kingdom and then again at the Czech Embassy in London, before representatives of the Czech military. She also completed a commission for lePassage Gallery in Alderney of Dr Nicola Brink MBE and her hospital colleagues Leah Peck and Aimee Coleman. Nicola Brink is celebrated for her exemplary leadership of the Bailiwick of Guernsey through the pandemic, and the painting was unveiled by her at the opening of the gallery’s summer exhibition.
Sally was selected to exhibited in the Royal Society of Portrait Painters annual exhibition in 2020, and has since completed commissions through the Society. In 2021 she exhibited with the Society of Women Artists in London. She has also exhibited with the ING Discerning Eye exhibition in London on multiple occasions, most recently in 2023. In January 2024 Sally was one of three artists in "Of Earth and Islands" at Art for Guernsey, where she exhibited a collected work of eight paintings. This examined the concept of "islandness" through underexplored common themes between Guernsey and Hong Kong. Through this, Sally was also selected to be part of the Channel Island Contemporary Art Show touring to Jersey, Guernsey and France.
Image copyright Etienne Laine