61Sharon Wadsworth-Smith lives on a lake on the South Shore of Nova Scotia, where she creates captivating paintings, rich with texture and loose brushwork.
She was born in Regina Saskatchewan in the mid of winter where she spent her early years, drawing on everything, and taking every art class she could find. In her teens, she headed west to Vancouver and completed her Associate in Arts Diploma in Graphic Design. She moved to the Toronto area and after working for several years as a graphic artist, returned to her fine arts roots and started to teach fine arts classes. She is a prolific painter and instructor in several mediums including drawing, watercolour, oil, and acrylic.
Her work is widely collected and she has received numerous awards including recent McMichael Gallery Plein Air Painting Award, 1st place award and Established Artist of the Year Award for 2018.
“I’m a minimalist and prefer to express my art with loose brushstrokes and palette knife work. It’s exciting to let some things happen naturally on the canvas and leave something to the viewers’ imagination. Movement plays an important role in my process and gives me the opportunity to play with blurred images and fuzzy lines. It’s wonderful to paint what you see but more fun to paint what you feel.”
Sharon recently moved to the South shore of Nova Scotia, drawn to the natural beauty of the area and abundant parks and beaches. “I walk out my door and feel enveloped by the wonderful sights and sounds of nature. Some of the subjects I feel drawn to are trees and abstracted figures within landscapes, so you will occasionally find people or other life forms wandering through my work. The ocean and the lakes are magnificent and really make this area an artist’s playground.”
Sharon received her formal Art training in Vancouver as a Graphic Artist. She worked for several years in that field and has been painting and teaching in a variety of mediums receiving numerous awards for her work including recent awards 2018 Established Artist of the Year Award and 2018 McMichael Gallery Plein Aire Painting Award, 1st Place.
She is a prolific painter and instructor in several mediums including drawing, watercolour, oil and acrylic. Her work in Graphic Design has given her a strong understanding of creative photography which helps her with her painting and composition.
“Movement plays an important role in my creative process. Colour is applied quickly in my initial approach to a painting. Sometimes it is used merely as an accent to the textures created using large house painting brushes and big flat palette knives as paint applicators.
As an artist, I am constantly trying to find new ways to express more vibrant colour in my paintings. With my recent works, I take many reference photos of my images and then I distort the colour balance, contrast, texture and attempt to play with the hues in an unexpected way. I try to remain flexible and adventurous in my choice of medium and enjoy using bold brush strokes. My recent work is in Acrylic, but I believe that each medium has its’ own voice so I choose the one that best portrays the spirit of the piece that I work on.”
Sharon recently moved herself and her creative art practice, along with her husband and two dogs, to the South Shore of Nova Scotia.
“I felt drawn to the beauty of the area and abundant natural parks and beaches. There are perfect walks along pristine beaches with the aqua waters so clean that you can see to the bottom. It really is an artist’s playground here.”
Accolades
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Using Black Paint as a Colour
3 years ago
Using black paint in Acrylic Paintings can be a challenge for many artists.