Kim Coley
The World in a Wall
Kim's recent paintings inspired by Gerald Durrell's
"My Family and Other Animals" (to be continued)
Shore Birds
(To be continued)
Gulls, Oystercatcher, Sanderling, Puffin. 60cm x 60 cm acrylic on panel.
Artist Statement
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Kim Coley is interested in the tensions between observation and expression, truth and wishful thinking.
Influences include the philosopher Richard Sennett (author of The Craftsman) amongst many others.
She paints mainly in oil and acrylic, and draws in charcoal and pen.
She sells her work from her studio and exhibits widely.
Take a look at her works, and get in touch for more information.
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(Male Blackbird was selected for The Royal Academy Summer Show in 2021)
“Kim is a painter of great skill in capturing the
vivacity of nature through her brushstrokes and energetic
mark-making. Her paintings are a record of human energy,
spirit and observation. I have always admired her
warm professionalism, her sense of humour and
commitment as an artist.”
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Jonathan Newdick
JN Sculptures
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Garden Birds
Still Life
Still Life: Ink and Gouache
Professional History
Joint and Several
Kim and artist Mel Davies collaborated to create a show at Sunnybank Mills in 2025.
They are back again this year from 11th September with "The Rolling Year"
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The Society of Wildlife Artists 2024
Long Tailed Tits was selected for SWA
"The Natural Eye"
61st Annual Open Exhibition at
The Mall Galleries, London SW1 from October 16th.
Woven Threads 2024
A Joint exhibition by artists who have exhibited at Sunnybank Mills since its restoration.
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A Tupperware Sky 2022
A Tupperware sky was acquired by William and John Gaunt of Sunnybank Mills.
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Drawn from the Land 2022 Sunnybank Mills
An exhibition by eleven artists whose work is inspired by the land.
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Royal Academy Summer Show 2021
Kim’s “Male Blackbird” was selected for this year’s Summer Show curated by Yinka Shonemare
North Yorkshire Open Studios 2007 - 2023
This is one of the most prestigious Open Studios events in the UK. Kim has taken part in NYOS for 17 years.
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The Bus Shelter KO
During lockdown Kim enjoyed painting a mural onto the bus stop at Kirkby Overblow, inspired by the wildflowers growing nearby.
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Mercer Gallery Open Exhibition 2010- 2019.
Kim has been selected to exhibit on many occasions. In 2010 she was awarded a prize for “Someone Else’s Coat”
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Sunnybank Mills 2012- 2024
Kim has exhibited on many occasions at the innovative and award-winning Sunnybank Mills in Farsley. She ran Life Classes there with artist Mel Davies for many years.
Art Director EU Cineage Project 2015
Working with students from Northern Film School Kim co -designed the set.
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Post Graduate Certificate of Education 2016
Teaching for a social purpose. Art Mentor Adam King. Awarded outstanding for all competences.
Farrow and Ball Landscape Commission 2012
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Pastels : The Isle of Arran
North Yorkshire
Life Drawings
Nudes
Biddy
Our beddy - whippet sausage dog
DAD'S POTS
My Dad made pots in the 60's and 70's and was so prolific that most of them ended up in the garden. Now I am pleased to have them cluttering up the place and sometimes invading my pictures.
"Joint and Several"
Mel Davies and Kim Coley
Online Gallery
The Spinning Mills, Sunnybank Mills, Farsley LS28 5UJ
(Contact Kim on 07734 256623 for sales and enquiries)
Photo by Peter Beckwith
1. "Beetle Drive" Oil on Linen 4' x 3' framed £1250 SOLD
2. "The Judgment of Paris" Oil on canvas 5' x 4' u/f £1500
3. Bird Jungle Diptych (Top) Oil on Canvas Framed 26" x 37" £750 SOLD
4. Bird Jungle Diptych (Bottom) Oil on Canvas Framed 26" x 37 " £750 SOLD
5. "The Beasties of the Air." Oil on Panel Triptych u/f 60" x 28" £1400
6,7,and 8 "Ogden's Bird Triptych" Oil on Panel Framed £750 each panel SOLD .
9. "The Collectors" Oil on Canvas 5' x 4' u/f £1500
10. "Spuggy" Oil on Canvas 5' x 4' u/f £1500 SOLD
11. "Kelpies" Oil on Panel 55" x 42" Framed £1400 SOLD
12. "Ladies Day" Oil on Canvas 5' x4' u/f £1500
13. "Like Moths to a Flame" Oil on Canvas u/f 4' x4' £1400
14. "Cherries and Chestnuts" Oil 31" x 40" Framed £800 SOLD
15. "Bourne's Swan Lake 1" Oil on Canvas 26" x 37" Framed £750 SOLD
16. "Bourne's Swan Lake 2" Oil on Canvas 26" x 37" Framed £750
17. "Bollywood" Oil on Canvas 5' x 4' u/f £1400
20. "Speed Dating" Oil on Canvas 5' x 4' u/f £1500 SOLD
21. "The Old Phil and Lit" Oil on Panel 25" x 25" £650 SOLD
22. "The Life Class" Oil on Canvas 5' x 4' u/f £1500
Joint and Several
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For many years Mel Davies and I ran a Life Drawing Class at Sunnybank Mills.
One exercise made me curious about the nature of cooperation. You might know the one, in which everyone moves round the room and draws on each other’s work.
A different quality emerged from these drawings, a visual dialogue started to take shape, the marks seemed more confident, more playful, and it helped that no one owned any one piece.
Mel and I decided to take the idea of collaboration further by drawing and painting together, on the same canvas at the same time.
This has been going on for two years now and an instinctive rhythm, melody and harmony is emerging.
We each have different preoccupations, so of course there have had to be compromises, but it is a process which encapsulates that valuable, if difficult, act of human cooperation.
In a late essay Michel de Montaigne writes. “In whatever position they are placed, men pile up and arrange themselves by moving and shuffling about, just as a group of objects thrown into a bag find their own way to join and fit together, often better than they could have been arranged deliberately.”
These paintings are the result of some very fun filled, valuable and enjoyable Wednesdays moving and shuffling about and elbowing each other in the ribs.
Kim Coley (June 2025)
Floral Riffs
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This series of lino prints is made with individual motifs.
The process feels like the development of a rhythm or melody..
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