Avril Sleeman was born and brought up in Croydon, where she attended Old Palace School and studied Art to ‘A’ level. She subsequently attended evening classes in life and portraiture as well as etching and screen printing at Croydon Art School and became completely "addicted" to all forms of etching. Unashamedly figurative in subject matter, she prefers strong images, usually landscapes or architecture, though, as a member of SOFA, cats make regular appearances. She has exhibited at the Woolwich Contemporary each year since 2019 and this year has submitted a range of subject matter worked on in the past twelve months. In the past few years, the mountainous landscapes of northern Europe have been her main focus as subjects for development. This year, whilst not completely abandoning that oeuvre, her subjects have been chosen, not in a cerebral way, but rather as (to her eyes) obvious contenders for some form of interpretation by the medium of etching.
Avril Sleeman was born and brought up in Croydon, where she attended Old Palace School and studied Art to ‘A’ level. She subsequently attended evening classes in life and portraiture as well as etching and screen printing at Croydon Art School and became completely "addicted" to all forms of etching. Unashamedly figurative in subject matter, she prefers strong images, usually landscapes or architecture, though, as a member of SOFA, cats make regular appearances. She has exhibited at the Woolwich Contemporary each year since 2019 and this year has submitted a range of subject matter worked on in the past twelve months. In the past few years, the mountainous landscapes of northern Europe have been her main focus as subjects for development. This year, whilst not completely abandoning that oeuvre, her subjects have been chosen, not in a cerebral way, but rather as (to her eyes) obvious contenders for some form of interpretation by the medium of etching.