Sheilah Banikin - Premium Artist

Some of my best inspiration comes from daydreaming. Everything comes from my centre as I do not use photographic references; sitting on a rock in Mexico overlooking the ocean, standing by Lake Superior, hiking in the Gros Morne Park in Newfoundland, the Kawarthas, Algonquin Park in Ontario, and Cabot's Trail in Nova Scotia. The great Canadian landscape is what I see and from that I take what I see and sometimes break it up so that images from Muskoka show up beside an image from Algonquin Park.

• 

  Undernearth It All
  pen on cold pressed paper
  9 x 12 inches

• 

  Citrine Morning
  watercolour and ink
  8 x 9 inches

• 

  Leaves of Grass
  acrylic
  30 x 30 inches

• 

  Touchstone Ridge
  acrylic
  36 x 36 inches

I was born in Toronto, in the Kensington Market area. The first school I attended was 'The Three Schools of Art' where I studied with some notable Canadian painters. I later attended York University, Visual Arts.

One of the things I am most interested in is texture; an invitation to people to touch and maybe in a small way see what I see. Another area of great interest started by wondering what is underneath the colour that we see. Flowers are beautiful, trees, plants and other vegetation filled with all colours. But if there were no colour, what would we see then? That idea took me to the drawings I do with one black pen and one paper. What lies beneath the colour, the support and structure of the flowers and plants, not as pretty to look at but the most important part of what we see. As in life, window dressing is what we all see, but to see what is underneath is a whole new world.

July '11

• Email Sheilah Banikin
• More artwork by Sheilah Banikin

• 

  Courage
  acrylic
  30 x 36 inches

• 

  FIre Island
  watercolour on yupo
  9 x 12 inches

• 

  Inukshuk
  watercolour on yupo
  9 x 12 inches

• 

  Volcano
  watercolour on yupo
  9 x 12 inches

Share this page with your friends via your favorite online service ( blog, myspace, email, etc...)