Shea is a self-taught wildlife artist who draws deeply from her personal experiences in nature. Since moving to the Elk Valley, Shea has been incredibly inspired by her surroundings that she picked up her paint brush after 15 years and hasn’t put it down since. Working from her home studio, she draws inspiration by day and captures the wilderness of the west coast by night.

Shea’s current medium is oil. Inspired by the moody wilderness of the west coast, her painting process begins on high-quality archival gallery wrapped stretched canvas. My process starts with a rough sketch of my subject with thinned oils using mineral spirits to get my underpainting started. Once dried, I capture my subject using thin oil layers and work my way to thick layers. Utilizing the slow drying time of oils, I continuously blend and build layers, block in colour, working in shadows and highlights. Focusing on cool tones first, then finishing with warm tones to ensure my colours pop.