About the Artist
 
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BiographyKIRSTEN T. O. SHEFFIELD is a Vancouver-born artist who subtly manipulates wax and dye to marry realism and the fluid nature of water within her painted batiks. Her curious technique intrigues and draws patrons to her varied subject matter which includes Westcoast landscapes, internationally inspired cultural and architectural themes, as well as local botanical images. Her unique, resist-based technique produces organic paintings particularly suited to the interplay of light and shadow, smooth gradations of colour and reflections on water. Her richly-hued paintings are heavily influenced by extensive travel and shaped by her background as an oil painter and photographer.
Receiving a BA in Art History from the University of Victoria in the 90's, Kirsten spent the next two decades in a circuitous commercial art-career ranging from technical drawing for scientific and medical journals to illustrating for Harper Collins, the Canadian Military History Journal and Paradigm Motion Pictures. In 2010, Kirsten became a full-time professional artist with the establishment of a successful mural business, called Walls That Talk. After 2 years, it became apparent that painting what "other people want" wasn't satisfying, and she decided to embrace her own photographs and delve back into a medium she had learnt about back in high school in Victoria, BC. Batik. She now focuses solely on her PAINTED batik - a technique introduced to her by Ontario batik artist and friend, Linda Risacher Copp. Kirsten uses a non-conventional batik method as she "paints" on the dye, as opposed to dipping it in a vat of dye. She uses cotton which allows for somewhat more control compared to the more commonly painted silk. The usual process where wax is heated and applied to fabric in stages, intermittent with dyes, remains the same. The truly artistic aspect of her work involves control of the dye when it touches the fabric, spreading in varying degrees dependent on how wet she allows the fabric to become. The wax, as usual, creates a boundary where the dye cannot enter. When a piece is finished, the wax is removed and the image emerges. Kirsten's work can be found privately across Canada, the United States, New Zealand and Britain, and in shows on Vancouver Island. She works from her studio in North Saanich, which can be visited by appointment (through the CONTACT tab above)or during the yearly fall ArtSea Studio Tour. Kirsten currently lives with her family in North Saanich, on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada. |
Artist's StatementAfter years of expressing other people's ideas through murals, I was eager to create artwork that was uniquely my own - this culminated in painting batiks. Manipulation and fusion of wax, water and dye on fabric pushes me outside my comfort zone of crisp reality, restraining the complete control that I'm so accustomed to. Despite working with the medium for over a decade, I still feel like I'm dancing with the devil as my dye-laden brush lingers above the wet cotton. Unlike any other medium I've worked with, painting a batik requires continuous forethought and focus throughout the creation - my mind can't wander. The fluid technique of batik allows me to create uniquely organic paintings particularly suited to the interplay of light and shadow, smooth gradations of colour and reflections on water. Batik has become an endless creative challenge for me and I love to test myself to see how far I can take it.
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