Sheila O'Malley

I am most myself when my feet are planted in some natural place. I become the translator of that place. I need not express myself by altering that which is before me, I am more its servant. I attempt to translate the beauty, the essence of a place into paint.

I try to capture the "thisness" of each day, each location. I look for places where the sky and the land compose in a way that creates wholeness and completeness. Each element in the composition before me is, as it should be, and cannot be altered without destroying the effect of the whole. When I find it, I know it and I paint it. I feel a place is a physical sacrament of something larger. I believe that there is something nourishing and regenerating in nature, and that we are diminished as we lose our connection to the natural world.

I have an art history degree from the University of MN. After raising my family I began to study in the classical realism tradition. I feel a strong connection to the l9th century Russian landscape painters.

Art has been my passion ever since I can remember. These last years I am blessed with the desire and ability to paint every day. I maintain my studio at the Minnesota River School where I paint still life, figure, and portrait, and continue to paint Minnesota and other landscapes.