Shelly Tregoning was born in Mauritius and she spent her early life being brought up in the West Indies. She was educated in England and now lives and works in Cornwall, having gained her BA in Fine Art at University College, Falmouth in 2011. Tregoning has been selected for the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, the Trinity Buoy Drawing Exhibition, winning 2nd prize in the 2019, the Discerning Eye, the National Open Art Competition, RWA exhibitions and the Threadneedle Prize Exhibition.
The artist writes: "Visually gathering ‘moments’ which inform my work, these drawings and scribbles create a scaffolding upon which I build my images. I don’t want simply to re-create an illustration of place or person, but rather through marks, painterly gestures and line, to express sensation and a sense of identity.
I want the physicality of paint to play its part, as it slips and slides across the surface, loaded on and wiped off until the image is anchored to its form. I feel compelled to pare down to the essential, but to do this without losing the sense of poetry - to keep things unencumbered, but not sterile. I want to convey a sense of immediacy, brevity and transience. In a quiet way I want to speak of universal truths and what it is to be emotionally connected."