Setting Sun Painting

Abstract artist Schira Withers hails from Ireland and now resides in New Zealand. She has been passionate about design all of her adult life, whilst being a primary school teacher. In 2019 she chose to journey a creative pathway. Schira creates sculptural works that are thought provoking and expressive. Each piece is meticulously sculpted on canvas, using a range of textural mixed media pastes, gels, resin sands and acrylic paint. Then delicately encased in a protective coating. Finally, they are professionally framed in a shadow boxed construction. Schira’s art is an energetic expression of her passion for nature and the human response to its environment. One is often tempted to search for a familiar element in an abstract painting and question what it resembles. Schira, however, builds a story on canvas, using shape and texture. Her colours flow, move and intertwine within the contours on the surface of the canvas and speak of our daily sights and sounds. She asks the viewer to engage with the depth of the textural form, to relax into the colour in all its hues and thus delve into a meditative moment. The intricate and varied process of creating an image for Schira is as necessary as the result itself. She becomes completely engaged when moulding the folds and contours of the surface plane and uses them to tell a story. She gives of herself fully to each and every artwork. Ultimately she tranfuses her visions to the canvas for the viewer to identify and decipher their own narrative.