About the Artist

I have always been a late bloomer.  I did not realize until my late 30s that I loved the challenge of creating and took my first painting class in a small rented room with other adult learners with our new paint sets and canvas boards, eager to learn the mysteries of oil painting.  I was not a complete stranger to the form, my mother would drop me off at the YMCA day care while she took painting classes with the other moms (strikingly similar to my age when I started).  I started hesitantly and casually...but after having the opportunity to be more serious and take classes from Andy Braitman in Charlotte, NC., I really started to understand seeing things from a painter's perspective and being able to articulate my particular way of 'seeing' in my paintings and drawings.

One thing I have come to understand about myself because of my adventure into the painting world is that I am driven by my senses and how my perceptions from those senses is my source of energy, power and satisfaction.  I love food and wine!  I love to have diffusing oils in each room with subtle aromas.  I love the feel of great sheets and I have to touch things that I buy.    Everywhere I turn, I am looking through a lens of a painterly eye... at the bin with discarded coffee cups at my favorite coffee shop to the mass of green outside of my office window, looking for patterns, shapes, light and a subject for my next painting.

I am inspired by all things organic, including the human figure that is truly a miracle in form and function.  The beauty of nature always amazes me... flora and fauna, the ocean, sunlight how it strikes our surroundings and illuminates our lives and the clouds in the sky.  Houston Texas can rival anywhere in the world for their sky-scapes!  I like painting all subjects  - so you will find my figure work, still life painting and landscapes on this site.    Showing energy and movement as well as depth (color, dimension, value) in a 2 dimensional painting is always something I am trying to accomplish.  Yet I am not a realist - I will leave that for the photographer. 

That said, I am still learning and developing.  I am invested in this journey and examine my practice regularly to develop a unique point of view and style.  My painting are in homes all over the country from San Francisco, Houston, Philadelphia and Charlotte.  My journey has been punctuated by commission works of all genres and I am very proud of painting Faded Beauty that  was selected as a top entry in the Sugar Land Art Center and Gallery in a juried exhibition.  I hope you will follow my journey with me as I regularly post my paintings.  I welcome any discourse and sharing of ideas.

Visit me on Instagram: @Sandy_Shein