Featured Artist Sheila Kern

Artist Sheila Kern’s paintings tell stories, and transport the viewer into a world created by her imagination. Visit her website to see more of her art.

 

 

Growing up, I’ve always known I wanted to be an artist. I felt great when I painted. To me, it just made sense.

 

 

When people ask me why there are certain things in my paintings, I often say that I don’t know; it’s just what I saw and it’s something I can’t describe. If I knew how to put it into words, I could tell or write about it, but to me it’s beyond words, so I paint it.

 

 

I like to create paintings that draw you in, take you to another world or a better feeling place, maybe a new place you’ve been trying to get to all along but didn’t know until you stepped into it.

 

 

For almost twenty years I lived in Europe as an artist, mostly in Ireland and Paris. Being surrounded by the beauty of the places I lived in really fed my artistic soul.

 

 

While exploring the museums in France, I was fascinated by the Renaissance paintings with their imagery, allegory and symbolism. While in Paris, I learned techniques of oil glazing and layering that bring with it depth and saturation of color. These layers of vibrant colors feel alive to me, like they have the ability to breathe.

 

 

I have always done portraiture painting. Setting the scene to reflect the essence of the person I’m painting is as important to me as getting the features right. It’s about telling the story, making it beautiful to look at and making the subject feel good when they look at it.

 

 

When I’m painting, the cares of life grow strangely dim. Although I work with a lot of detail, I find I love it, and that it calms me. At the same time, I find that working on content and composition, and the contrast of what works and doesn’t work, can be a struggle for me.

 

 

There have been a few elaborate pieces that have taken me years to finish complete (I kept changing them—at times dramatically.) Sometimes I’ve had to paint over months of work because it just wasn’t right. These pieces change me. They have layers under them of painted-over images that are part of the structure of the paintings.

 

 

Does the painting change my perspective, or has my perspective changed and then I change the painting? It seems I’m not painting the painting, but the painting is painting me.

 

 

I love to create beautiful things because I feel great when I am creating them. Beauty is something that brings you to a better feeling place. I also like to make sense of things, and present my view of the world in ways that words can’t, through images and symbolism.

 

Artist Sheila Kern invites you to follow her on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.

 

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