Sylvia resides in Pembrokeshire, where she works with her artist husband Leon Olin. Their croft-style home has a studio and gallery over-looking the Preseli Hills which proves an inspiration to them both.

Sylvia's natural talent was developed at the Royal Tunbridge Wells School of Art, after which she took an Art Teaching Degree. Whilst attending the school of art, she eventually specialised in painting and wood-engraving. Her work has been seen in the Royal Academy, and the Royal Society of Painters, Etchers and Engravers.

Earlier work in oils was purchased for the Webber Collection in Canada. Exhibitions in Europe and Britain proved encouraging, and Sylvia with her husband, are resident gallery artists in the Francis Iles Gallery in Rochester, Kent. She has worked in a variety of media although lately the vibrant colours of acrylic paint have proved favourable to capture the particular light and richness in the West Wales landscape.

Her involvement with education ceased in 1974. She resigned as Head of an Art Department in Hampshire, and there followed a period of travelling, researching and building up a collection of work that has eventually become the basis of a book entitled "Food from the Countryside", published by Bishopsgate Press. This publication was written and illustrated by her husband and herself. Many years of observing wildlife and natural form have been put to good use in delicate line drawings, when being commissioned to illustrate for books and magazines, lending an interesting variety to her work. Sylvia works mainly to commission and for exhibition, and has recently had work purchased by the Kallis Foundation in Beverly Hills. Her work may also be seen in limited edition prints and greeting cards.

The publishers A. G. Muller of Switzerland have now produced a worldwide distribution of the "Tarot of The Old Path" which Sylvia was commissioned to illustrate. An exhibition of the original seventy-eight water-colours are being exhibited on a world tour.

Leon studied at Leicester College of Art, gaining his National Diploma in Painting, and then at Brighton College of Art to study art education. Since resigning as Head of Fine Art at Itchen College, Southampton, and part-time lecturer at the College of Art, Southampton, in 1974, he has worked as a full-time professional artist. He rejected the offered post of Director of Art for the city of Southampton and moved from Kent to Pembrokeshire in 1987, where he is establishing himself in his new environment.

He has three paintings owned by the Princess Royal, several works in the permanent collection of Southampton and Portsmouth Civic Galleries and the Kallis Foundation in Beverley Hills, California, USA, along with many exhibitions in private galleries, mainly in Britain and Holland, three of which attracted ten minute films by BBC and Independent Television.

For two years, along with his artist wife, Sylvia Gainsford, he travelled and painted throughout Britain from a mobile studio, producing work to interest three London publishers, enough to commission the work for books, including a bound edition of 550 line drawings which were made on location. Further to this his paintings and drawings have been published in limited and unlimited edition prints, cards and magazines.

Essentially a landscape painter working mainly in oils and watercolour, he believes very strongly that each painting should have an application that is a direct response to the subject and not a personal technique, however visually attractive, that has been used by the artist in order to develop a style. He also believes that painting should display a strong element of draughtsmanship. No amount of "arty verbosity" can disguise a lack of this. Craftsmanship and technical ability, though now an old fashioned concept, are nevertheless, a hallmark of his work. He is no lover of specialist societies and is embarrassed by the lack of discernment and credibility in the art world, believing that a work of art should be judged on its own merit and not by the signature at the bottom right hand corner.

Gallery One, Fishguard, click image for larger photo.