Bio
A native of Dublin, Sheila Naughton is an Honours graduate of NCAD Dublin and Ecole Cantonale
des Beaux Arts et d'Arts Appliqués, Lausanne, Switzerland.  Sheila was awarded a residency at The Custom House Studios and Gallery in Westport in 2010.  This experience was pivotal in developing her interest in contemporary abstract drawing and painting. Since then, solo shows have included Chiaroscuro at The Custom House Gallery in
Westport, Lightspill at The Higher Bridges Gallery, Enniskillen, Works on Paper at Gallery One, Kilkenny Design Workshops, Blur at Dun Laoghaire County Council Gallery, The Darkest Night at the Olivier Cornet Gallery in Dublin.

As well as several two-person and collaborative exhibitions, her work has been selected for numerous group exhibitions. These include the RHA Annual, Cairde Visual at The Model and Hamilton gallery in Sligo, Westival in Westport, VUE at the RHA, SO Fine Art, Dublin, The Waterford Gallery of Art, GOMA and ArtForm at 44 The Quay, Waterford, Mount Congreve Gardens, 9 Walls at The Hyde Bridge Gallery, Sligo, Dunamaise Open, Portlaoise, Shrule Arts Centre, Omagh, Wexford Opera House with Olivier Cornet Gallery, and various travelling exhibitions to India and the Baltic countries organised by Drawing Box International. Works have also been selected for various exhibitions with ArtNet DLR, Dun Laoghaire, The National Sculpture Centre, Manorhamilton and The Lavit in Cork. In 2025 work was selected for RUA (Royal Ulster Academy) at The Ulster Museum, Belfast, Art in The Gardens at Mount Congreve and group exhibitions “Pink”, “Out of Lines” and “Memorandum” at the Olivier Cornet Gallery in Dublin. “Ode to Giants”, a series of works inspired by Sol LeWitt’s gouache paintings featured as part of Dublin Gallery Weekend 2025. Most recently work was
selected for the GOMA Winter exhibition.  Sheila will have two solo shows in 2026, one at The Ballinglen Arts Foundation Gallery in Mayo in May and another at the Olivier Cornet Gallery in Dublin in November.  Waterford Gallery of Art have recently purchased work for their permanent collection (Municipal Collection) in 2026.

Statement
I am interested in the nature of human experience. Through abstract painting and drawing I try to convey meaning and sensation.  Lines are a recurring theme in my work and have a particular resonance for me. The act of drawing lines marks the daily rhythm of life and work. It encompasses both the act of making and the expression of thought. Line is the fundamental element of drawing and the quality of that line can be highly expressive in terms of communicating an idea or emotion. A soft delicate line can express gentleness and calm whereas a bold heavy one can communicate anger and aggression.  The repetition of lines creates rhythm, and like music, I try to create a visual rhythm in painting,
with variation in the repetition of the lines to keep it interesting.  I work mainly with watercolour and gouache, as I especially like to work on paper. The mark of the human hand is evident in the work and is important to me - something individual to human identity when individuality is in crisis. My work is concerned with our states of ‘being’ in the world, but is as much about the act of drawing and painting itself.