Welcome to my portrait gallery. I've been a portrait artist for as long as I can remember and have recently joined the Plein Air Society. The Plein Air Society meets a few times a year in the summer and paints lanscapes of the surrounding scenery. My lanscapes can be found in the Landscapes Gallery below.
Born in Mansfield, Ohio, Sharon and her family moved to Crestline, Ohio in the 1960’s. While both parents were creative, her mother was the one who encouraged her to develop her drawing skills and at a very young age found drawing a most enjoyable experience. She continued to draw throughout high school and began painting in her 20’s. Having no formal education she attended area workshops and joined a book club, spending hours studying when and where she could.
While portraits are her passion she also finds landscapes and still lifes fulfilling. Her love of painting evolves. The process is why she paints. Continuing to challenge herself, having painted portraits for 40 years she has recently joined the Ohio Plein Air Society facing a new set of challenges in the aerial perspective of a landscape.
“Learning to paint is a process that can bring pleasure or frustration. Much like a carpenter, his nail to hammer, ours is pencil to paper, brush to canvass. It takes time and dedication. Edges, form, design, shape, light, color, value, softness vs. hard lines, dark vs. light; this is the process of painting. Drawing from within you strive to achieve what you see and feel before you.”
Painting mostly in oil she does work in acrylics and pastel. Her work has hung in numerous shows across Ohio and in homes of those whose portraits were commissioned.
“It is my goal as an artist to develop and increase that ‘manner of workmanship’ which is within me, the ability of an artist. It is a privilege to capture and convey all the beauty our Lord has given us and a duty to use that ability in a way to inspire, encourage, bring pleasure and knowledge through visual communication.” To God be the Glory.
~ Sharon Weaver 2009