Shehara Arachchige is a London-based artist who turns people, places and memories into images with a life of their own.

Artist statement

Shehara began drawing at the age of five, filling pages with faces, places and small imagined scenes. A pencil was never just a pencil. It became a way of noticing the things that make a moment stay with us: the tilt of a head, a favourite outfit, a hand held tightly, the colour of a sky on a day someone wants to remember.

That curiosity has grown into a practice rooted in narrative. Her paintings and drawings often begin with a real person, a photograph, a memory or a quietly cinematic idea. Portraiture sits at the centre of her work, but not simply as likeness. She is interested in the feeling behind an image, the way a face can carry humour, tenderness, resilience or a whole story without saying a word.

Now based in London, Shehara works across oil, acrylic, watercolour, graphite and coloured pencil. She moves between the rich, slow build of oil paint and the immediacy of drawing, allowing each material to lead the work in a different direction. Her Sri Lankan heritage remains one thread in this wider way of seeing, alongside lived experience, observation and the people she meets through her work.

Her practice also reaches beyond the studio through murals, hand-painted signage, live art and workshops. From a portrait made for a family home to imagery designed for a shared space, she enjoys the moment when art becomes part of someone’s everyday world. The scale changes, but the intention stays the same: make something personal, considered and full of presence.

Across every medium, Shehara works slowly enough to let an image breathe. She builds colour, texture and detail with care, always looking for the small element that makes a work feel honest rather than generic. Shen Art is a growing body of work about connection, memory and the quiet magic of being seen.