Primarily self-taught, Sheila has been a professional artist for over 26 years. Her interest lies in the changing light in obscure areas of the environment as seen on the periphery of daily vision. Sheila works in oil, painting both Plein Air and in the studio, preferring large panels.
Using dynamic brushstrokes and saturated colour, she captures the friction and play of texture and temperature where surface planes meet, challenging the eye to look deeper, to see beyond the obvious, to become aware of those areas of nature necessary to existence, to see beauty in the mundane.
Her work has a strong organic feel to it, indicative of the natural landscape she paints. Foremost she is known for the energy she pours into each work to capture the chaotic vibrancy of mother earth.
An elected member of the Society of Canadian Artists, the Ontario Society of Artists and a Senior Signature member of the Federation of Canadian Artists, Sheila’s work has been featured in magazines, on television and is included in private and corporate collections around the world. She is represented by various galleries throughout Canada and participates in select exhibitions throughout the year.
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Artist’s Statement:

My attraction is most definitely the play of light and movement in our natural environment. I am not attracted to ‘landscapes’ or ‘pretty scenes’. It’s the ambiguous flash of colour and texture in a fleeting moment that gets my blood rushing.

While unfettered forests are my muse the subject has come to be the paint itself.  The surface tension created with drippy transparent passages sliced with heavy opaque brush strokes as well as hits of light where the brush barely touches the surface and calligraphic mark-making. All lending itself to more abstraction than actual place.

I find I am inspired by the friction and play of textures where surface planes meet.  The tangled under growth competing for light and space.  A play of forces, where colour and temperature meld or clash for dominance – a battle of the elements, Earth, Sky, Water, and all they encompass. I believe an Artist interprets best what they know intimately…what surrounds them personally and they touch daily… what influences on a deep emotional level either conscious or unconscious.  For me this is the untouched forests… tangled, unfettered and unfinished…a work in progress, constantly growing and striving towards light, strength, and freedom from constraint.

Using traditional oils, I work quickly and vigorously, laying in several layers of transparent colour and value using large dynamic brushstrokes combined with splatter and drip, these layers are each reworked with opaque brushwork and calligraphy as I attempt to portray what first excited me about the subject, the flash causing the rush of adrenaline and the urge to ‘get it down’ before the feeling dissipates.  I prefer to work in large format where I can apply movement and gesture to express the intense vitality and power I experience in the landscape. I want the viewer to experience the moment as if they are standing there with me.