After spending years recovering from a severe infection, I now know precisely what I want out of life! Life is too short to not be appreciating all of the beauty and good fortune it holds! If you, like me, know what you want out of art, and if you know you are searching for unique pieces with thick, textured brush strokes of vibrant colors, please enjoy my paintings!
Yes, my paintings, although cheerful, do have deep meaning. I try to make that meaning revolve around celebrating life and healing changes.
My paintings deliver a positive burst of energy to you. The bold color and movement in my work is for those of you who are sensual. Have a tasty glass of wine while perusing my art. Why not just imagine yourself escaping into the joyful places I depict during your meals? Share my art with others! After all, my art is all relaxation and no angst.
I am perhaps best known for my work helping to restore Monet’s gardens and photographing them for 30 years. My photos have traveled with Monet’s paintings to eight museums, and are published annually in calendars and the award winning Monet’s Passion: Ideas, Inspiration & Insights from the Painter’s Gardens. My passion for nature and appreciation for beauty has inspired my dedication to diverse projects around the world from remote African villages, the Amazon rain forest, and Japan to permanent installments in corporate collections.
As a popular keynote speaker and workshop leader, I use the beauty of my photographic images, personal stories, garden metaphors, and humor to inspire the imagination of my audience to connect with what has heart and meaning for them, and to express their own creativity in their work and personal lives.
I had no idea I would end up being a painter, even though my life has always been infused with art. Dad taught us the Munsell color system when we were in elementary school, showing us tubes of natural pigments and how they combine. I was surrounded by beautiful art as I grew up, spent family together time at museums, and was involved in photography and many needle crafts. Art History was a natural major for me in college.
My desire to paint arose from my father's example as a wonderful watercolorist, a lack of purpose in my life, and a SPECTRA artist's lesson to the third grade class I was teaching in 2004. Due to my background in art history/art appreciation, excellent instruction and some natural ability, I have experienced a bit of success.
Michele Allen is the Traffic Anchor for KSBW TV...and also an avid photographer, She took photography in high school and recently picked the camera back up and started snapping photos and found that she still really enjoyed it. Different cameras, no film, lots of new locations - means lots of fun!
I have been pursuing my passion for photography since 2009, when I took a class at a community college and discovered the opportunity to see the beauty that is all around us, all the time. Whether it’s a dew-speckled spider web on a clothesline, a flock of wild turkeys along the side of the road, or the stunning landscapes that surround Monterey County, we are rewarded with works of art waiting to be unveiled, one splendid hill, rolling wave or tiny detail at a time. I see beauty not just with my eyes, but through the lens of my heart and my faith. As the camera gives voice to this vision, I am able to share it with others.
Sheila is known for her luminous paintings of her native California and the West. Prior to becoming a full time artist, she had a distinguished career as a city and county planner, working on open space and resource conservation issues. She now translates her love and respect for nature into her paintings. Prior to establishing herself as an artist, Sheila had a distinguished career as a city and county planner. Her work on open space and resource conservation issues won numerous regional and national planning awards. Her love and respect for nature are now being translated into her paintings.
It all started when I was very young, almost forty years ago. I have always enjoyed the brightest colors of the spectrum and their depiction rendered upon film, particularly slide film. Over the years, motorsports photography afforded me the opportunity to collect precision equipment which I now use to refined my art and passion to capture the beauty, the wonders, wildlife and the abundant scenic landscapes of the Monterey Bay Area, California and the west.