Sheila Girling

Sheila May Girling, Lady Caro (1 July 1924 – 14 February 2015) was a British artist who worked across painting, collage and clay.

She was one of the first British artists to use acrylic mediums and is known for working directly on the floor to immerse herself in the space of her canvases.

Her father, Cyril Stanley Frank Girling, was an engineer working for Dunlop Tyre Company and her mother was Beatrice May (née Harvey).

After graduating, Girling moved into a studio in the 'Italian Village' on the Fulham Road in London, designed by artist and architect Mario Manenti.

Over this period, Girling developed close relationships with the Colour Field painters Kenneth Noland, Helen Frankenthaler and Jules Olitski.

[11] Alongside being an accomplished and experimental painter, Girling also produced a substantial body of works in clay.

These abstract collage slabs were made in Syracuse, New York during a clay workshop with ceramicist Margie Hughto in 1978.

In 1982 Girling set up Triangle Artist Workshop with Caro, philanthropist Robert Loder and curator Terry Fenton.

[7] To mark the centenary of her birth in 2024, The Art and Life of Sheila Girling opened at Space to Breathe, Bowhouse, Fife, curated by Former Director of Sotheby's Impressionist and Modern Art Department Sophie Camu and her husband, the documentary photographer and Girling’s former neighbour at Frognal, Alexander Lindsay.