Sandy Sheagren is a visual artist and poet who has been drawing, painting, and writing since childhood. She uses a variety of media including pencil, watercolor, and oil paint, and often combines watercolor with pencil. Since 1998 she has studied watercolor with Leslie Hirshfield at the Noyes Cultural Center in Evanston, IL, portraiture and the figure with Gay Riseborough at Studio 1123, Evanston, IL, and oil painting under the guidance of Ann Ponce in her studio in Chicago, IL.

Sandy paints a variety of subjects and has a special interest in portraiture and the figure. An earlier career in nursing and some study of medical illustration gives her a knowledge base of anatomy from which to work. In addition to rendering a likeness, she is particularly interested in how posture, body language, and color contribute to establishing a feeling or mood. She uses similar elements in her landscapes and still lifes in order to capture, not only the forms in nature, but also to create a mood.

This artist adds a unique blend of visual art and the written word by writing lines of poetry in lieu of titles for some of her portraits. This adds another dimension to her work and draws the viewer further into the mood. More recently her portraits have also explored the effect of focusing study from a position that does not identify the subject’s face.

Sandy Sheagren has exhibited work in numerous shows locally and nationally, including the Chicago Art Open (IL), Woman Made Gallery (IL), Open Space Gallery (PA), Lemon Street Gallery (WI), the Illinois Artisans Program (IL), and the Ravenswood Corridor Arts and Industry Walk (IL). Her poetry has been published in Woman Made Gallery’s Her Mark 2006, Our Journey, the anthologies, Sermons in Poetry and Voices, and on the RHINO website and she has received 2 Merit Awards from Sky Blue Waters.

She paints from life, photographs, or a combination of both and draws on life experiences to write. Preliminary studies for commissions are shared with the client to insure satisfaction with the finished painting. Sandy is a member of the North Shore Art League, The National Museum of Women in the Arts, the Portrait Society of America, and Woman Made Gallery. She is currently the president of the Glenview Art League.

Sandy has appeared in the following media:

• Inside Glenview, February 2013
• About Painting, The Glenview Announcements, October 11, 2012
• Heart and Soul of Haiti, The Glenview Announcements, December 30, 2010
• Poetry of the Pose, Mt. Carmel Daily Republican, Sept 8, 2005