Born and raised in Vancouver, Shelley put on her first pair of downhill skis at two and she has had a love affair with the mountains since. This has evolved into a passion for hiking, exploring and painting British Columbia’s wilderness, resulting in regular trips into the more remote corners of the province.
Introduced to art at a young age by a family friend, Shelley knew from the time she was in elementary school that she wanted to be an artist.
At 20 she moved to Halifax, Nova Scotia to attend the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design (NSCAD). While at NSCAD she did a double major and received both her BDes (Honours) in Communication Design as well as her BFA in painting. It was there that she was first introduced to watercolour and fell in love with landscape painting. In her last year of the BFA program she was the recipient of a faculty nominated scholarship from the Canadian Society of Painters in Watercolour.
Upon graduating Shelley moved back to Vancouver to be close to the mountains and her family. In 2001 she started a home based boutique Graphic Design studio, inEthos, which runs along side of her painting practice.
Shelley works primarily in watercolour. Her landscapes are reminiscent of her charcoal sketches which her paintings are based on. They are loose and spontaneous, often playing with the unpredictable and fluid nature of the medium. She paints and lives in Boundary Bay, BC with her son, partner and dog.
