Sophie Walbeoffe

Sophie Walbeoffe (born 1961) studied Fine Art at Wimbledon School of Art, later with Cecil Collins at the Central School of Art , a teacher inspired by Eastern spirituality, who encouraged his students to use their hands, and more eccentrically, their mouths and feet. From this moment Sophie adopted an impulsive way of working, using both hands, which she says ‘creates magic straight away’.

Sophie, whose great uncle established the Courtauld Institute of Art, has been travelling extensively since the 1980s. She met her husband Piers Simpkin in Kenya,a scientist specialising in the study of camels and arid lands, They live in Nairobi,Karen but were lucky enough to  bring  up their two children Jasper and Lara in the bush, accompanied by a herd of thier own fifty camels.  

they still own the herd of fifty camels and are always an inspiration to Sophie's work. 

After a period of two and half years painting  in Isreal sophie found many new influences for her painting. the trials of living in such a devided world have had an impact on her work The image on the left of a pallet with wings is meant to identify with the artist who can always travel from one world to another with so much more ease than others.