Art has been a part of my life for as long as I can remember.  From a very young age drawing has had this strange pull.  My earliest memory of this pull was when I was around 6 years old and my older brother received a drawing kit for Christmas.  I was so envious of him, and to make things worse, he would not share it with me.  Just the thought of holding that piece of charcoal was all consuming.  I would sneak into his room and hold the charcoal and look at the imagines in the book, and wish I could learn to draw just like that. Over the years I would just ignore this pull and get on with other aspects of my life, because I never thought that I could draw or paint.

Well, I now realize that was a grave mistake on my part, thank goodness the pull stayed with me. Later in life, as I was raising my four children, when they would go down for their naps I would grab a pencil and a note pad and sit and just draw. That was the first time I really gave in to this pull and it was the strangest thing, as though I was in this other world.  The way I could make the lead shade and move on the paper was very exciting and strange to me.  From that day on the pull grew and even though I could not afford to drop everything and go to any sort of art school, I always knew that art would be a part of who I am.

A few years later I was finally able to take oil painting lessons with a local artist.  I was still not content with just doing oil painting.   Then I decided to learn to paint using water-colours.  Still there had to be something else because nothing seemed to fit my style or taste.  So off I went again, this time to try stained glass.  Though I enjoy this, the knowledge of something more exciting was pulling at me.  Maybe pottery would suit me better?   Yet again, I loved the feeling of the clay but also knew this was not it and I could not explain why.

I was beginning to get very upset with myself.  How is it that I had done so many things and NOTHING seemed to be the right fit?  My break-through came when I went to see some very unusual art.  It was paintings done using hot wax.  Now THAT was something very exciting to me and I was HOOKED!  The texture, colour and the lustrous shine, was like nothing I had ever seen and I loved it.

Now everything seemed to fit into place.  The oil painting and watercolour lessons, pastels, scrapbooking, pottery, stained glass, crafting, etc…it was all finally coming together.  I just needed to learn all these modalities to get ready.

Encaustic painting was what I have been looking for, so I hope you enjoy looking at my work.

Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions.

Sheila