Sylvia P.
Gainsford
Paintings
TAROT OF THE OLD PATH
TAROT OF NORTHERN SHADOWS
KABBALAH CARDS
THE RUNE VISION CARDS
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.