Bio

Sheila Smith was born and raised in New Jersey.  After obtaining a degree in Chemistry she moved to NYC.  Her art education began  there with frequent visits to New York's MOMA and Guggenheim Museums.  The painters who interested her most in those days included Van Gogh and Picasso.

Eventually Smith settled in Utica, NY with her husband and three children. She ended her chemistry career in order to take on family responsibilities. She started to study drawing and painting at Munson-Williams-Proctor Arts Institute (MWP).   She found parallels between creating art and scientific research; both were solitary processes involving thinking, working with one’s hands and applying learned techniques and knowledge to the creative process.

Upon completing the Fine Arts Studio Program at The Munson, Smith worked in 3 dimensions exploring feminist themes.  She switched to oil painting when she lost the use of her sculpture studio.  She produced the figure in abstract places and cows in incongruous settings and strayed into the world of surrealism.  Her work was shown in regional galleries and was  juried into many group shows including  “Central New York Artists" at the Munson,  The Schweinfurth Memorial Art Center, The Everson Museum of Art Biennial and “Artists of the Mohawk-Hudson Region” at the Albany Institute of Art.  Her paintings have been  included in several issues of “The Stone Canoe Journal of Art” published by Syracuse University.

In July of 2019 Smith moved to Rhode Island.  Just prior to this, she had journeyed away from figurative work to a very formalist approach of surreal images called Biologiks.  Upon completion of this series and the return to a post pandemic chaos, she realized that once again she needed to add content to her work. Her latest series, “Passages,” which addresses human migration in the world today has been shown at the Bunny Fain Gallery at Temple Habonim in Barrington RI.  Other venues in RI where her paintings have been seen include The Warwick Center for the Arts, Attelboro Art Museum, Imago Gallery,  Bristol Museum of Art and Art League of RI.   Miss Muffet and Long Road have been recognized as “works of distinction.”