Regional Sportlight on Our Community

Yuba Sutter Arts Artist of the Month - Meet Sharon McLeod
by David Read
President, Board of Directors, YSA

Sharon McLeod did not always plan to be an artist. Unlike some of the artists we have profiled who knew from an early age that they had to create in order to make their lives meaningful, Sharon took another approach. Sharon came to be an artist at a mature stage of her life and was drawn to it by the need to share and understand personal life experiences through artistic expression.

A native of the prairies of Saskatchewan in central Canada, Sharon says she is living her dream by now having the opportunity to paint. “Each and every one of my paintings is made with a devotion and intensity of my personal expression within this medium,” says Sharon. She adds as an example that her painting titled “Mental Illness” attempts to express the life she imagines her brother must live in as a person diagnosed with schizophrenia. Sharon says that much of her inspiration comes from concern for those dealing with mental illness.

“The faces are painted with my hands, without effort, as though they needed to be created,” adds Sharon. She says she waits for the inspiration to hit her and when it does, she begins to draw from her life experience. Sometimes her approach is manic. At other times, she can be more calculated, but always, she says, she paints with passion.

Sharon’s work can be enigmatic. She expects the viewer to fill in the blanks to help provide the story line about the piece. Sharon says that as a retiree who has achieved “senior” status, she is working through her personal bucket list. She has been an avid golfer and she has even performed at The Acting Company in Yuba City. However, these days Sharon’s painting consumes much of her time and is her primary artistic focus.

Her early training was in Canada. Arriving in the Yuba Sutter area fourteen years ago, she has studied with Yuba College professor, Glenn Husted. Glenn has been a great inspiration to Sharon as he has encouraged her to follow her own artistic vision.

Sharon’s one artist show, “Garage Paintings,” which is an excellent representation of her work, is currently on display at the Yuba Sutter Arts Gallery now through April 17, 2015. Normal gallery hours are from Wednesday through Saturday from 11am to 4pm.

About YSA: Yuba Sutter Arts is a non-profit organization whose mission is to provide arts programming, education, advocacy, assistance and service to artists, organizations and residents of Yuba and Sutter Counties. The official agency for Yuba and Sutter of the California Arts Council, its programs include art classes for students of all ages from both counties, the Women's Creative Circle, Art Party, Shakespeare Readers’ Theatre, the Marysville Every Child Can elementary school music program, Very Special Arts Festival, Harvest the Arts, the Art Harvest plein air painting program and Art Everywhere. http://yubasutterarts.org/