Avril Sleeman was born and brought up in Croydon where she attended Old Palace School and studied Art to ‘A’ level. She subsequently attended evening classes in life and portraiture as well as etching and screen printing at Croydon Art School and became completely "addicted" to all forms of etching. Unashamedly figurative in subject matter she prefers strong images, usually landscapes or architecture, though, as a member of SOFA, cats make regular appearances. She has travelled extensively in Europe, and in recent years has visited Greenland, Iceland and Norway and has recorded, initially in pencil and later on copper etching plates, the cliffs, mountains, fjords and ice floes of those countries as well as the changeable weather and cloud formations.