Sharon Kelly – Arts Council Northern Ireland Artist of the Month

The talented Sharon Kelly is the ACNI Artist of the Month for January 2026!

Artwork Title: Bouquet
Artwork Medium: Watercolour and graphite
Artwork Date: 2013

Sharon was born in Wiltshire and moved to Northern Ireland in 1983. She gained a BA (Hons) Fine Art degree in 1986, and an MFA in 1989 from the University of Ulster. She was co-founder of Flaxart Studios in 1990 and later Paragon Studios, where she was co-director from 1993 to 2016.

Sharon has exhibited widely nationally and internationally since 1990, in both solo and curated group exhibitions. Alongside her studio-based practice, Sharon has also undertaken many residencies, collaborative productions, and numerous multimedia projects in the field of education across Ireland.

‘Bouquet’ is part of the Arts Council of Northern Ireland art collection. The artwork was created in late summer, inspired by a bouquet of flowers that lay on a table in the artist’s studio. The fading colour of the rosebuds that had not yet blossomed held poignancy that the artist wanted to capture. The drawing celebrates the small things that pass sometimes unnoticed, whilst also giving reference to time passing, beauty fading, and the cycle of life.