Sheila Blakemore grew up in Kansas City, MO. She took an art class at the Nelson-Atkins Art Museum but was very disappointed when they only told her to express herself. She wanted to paint like the artists in the museum. Her parents searched and the only teacher found willing to take an eight year old was Mary Shaw. Sheila studied realistic oil painting with Ms. Shaw until graduating from high school.

Sheila completed a BFA in Commercial Art from Central Missouri State University, married and moved to Texas in the late 1970s. She built a career freelancing as a graphic designer in Fort Worth, Austin and San Antonio until 2005. Sending her last child off to college and retiring from graphic design gave Sheila the opportunity to concentrate on painting for the first time since high school.

She is fascinated by brilliant sunlight and strives to capture individual moments. She has found painting is often a struggle. The endless decisions between more or less, lighter or darker, this technique or that, are staggering. It looks as though it will take a lifetime to sort out, and Sheila is enjoying the journey.

Sheila and her husband live on Medina Lake, west of San Antonio.