Sylvia Priestland was trained at Hornsey School of Art and the Ruskin School of Art in Oxford. There she met her future husband, Gerald Priestland, journalist, radio broadcaster and foreign correspondent. Together they had four children.

They wrote and illustrated 'West of Hayle River' (2nd edition being entitled 'Priestland's Cornwall') and other publications especially related to Gerry's travels. Their London home was in West Hampstead, and in Cornwall they resided in an renovated Methodist Sunday School near the very old Ding Dong mine. Sylvia showed her work both in Cornwall (Jamieson Library, Newmill) and in Hampstead. She also gave workshops and art lessons to long-stay patients in London hospitals.