Sheila Berenson
- Community of Residence: Brookline
- Email: skberenson@gmail.com
- Website: www.skberenson.com
- Phone: 913-649-1665
- Artist Biography: Raised in Nashville into an academic household, I did not pursue art until I began teaching, then searched for community colleges to take art classes in the evenings. My art interest did not go to waste during the day, however, as I constantly rewrote classroom curriculums where I taught in Madison, San Antonio, Austin, Wichita, and Kansas City, wanting desperately to engage and inspire students in reading, science, and English. I then wanted to share ideas with others, so I became involved with national journals and conferences. I also used my art sense to become the founding director of a hands-on children’s museum in Kansas as well as teach as an adjunct at several universities. Seven years ago, I moved to Boston to become involved in the arts full-time and to write/illustrate for children.
Various local teachers have had tremendous impact on my development, including N. Miebach, N.
Feldman, J. Fullerton, L. Thomas, B. Seigelman, and C. McCarthy. In addition, I am forever studying works
by Sze, Bearden, Picasso, Kandinsky, Chagall, and Lawrence. Teaching trips to Southeast Asia, Mexico,
and Central America exploded my color sense. I have been a member of TBZ for approximately four years
and have two sons and a grandbaby.
- Artist Statement: My desire is to capture the energy in the world around us – the delightful, the inspiring, the exhausting, the grim. I focus on content, color, movement, and line but also the interaction of each layer with other layers around. I turn to acrylics as my primary painting medium but also rely on pastels,watercolors, charcoal, photography, and inks, along with various papers, fabrics, woods, and wires; a new interest is to incorporate bendable woods. Subject matter often involves the figure, nature, and/or music–either in representational or abstract form.
