Biography : |
Susan Sinclair Shields graduated from JCCC in Kansas City with a degree in Commercial Art. Her versatility spans many areas of the Commercial and Fine Art fields. She balances her talent in aviation art with the ability to create portraits of people and animals as well as graphic design. She has worked for Hallmark Cards, Inc., various ad agencies and was an illustrator of World Wildlife t-shirts for a screen printing company.
An established member of the American Society of Aviation Artists she has completed numerous commissioned works that hang on walls from New York to Switzerland. The aircraft range from Military, Commercial, Corporate, private, Aerobatic to hot air balloons. She especially likes to focus on the aerial views of cities which are acutely detailed, but also enjoys depicting mountain scenes and seascapes. All of her aerial paintings are rendered in acrylic, but her portraits and landscapes are done in either acrylic, pastels or colored pencil.
Susan has designed magazine covers for Aerospace Historian and Pilot News magazine.
She credits her talent to the encouragement and inspiration of her Mother, who introduced her to the world of art at the age of four. She drew profusely growing up, signing up for any art classes she could get into. In her late teens she became good friends with an aerobatic pilot, who took her up in his Bushby Mustang Experimental plane, where she grew to love flying. After doing her first painting of an airplane for him, she walked into a shopping mall to get it framed and met an aviation artist who was there for an art show. He offered to give her painting lessons and she studied under him for several years. "It was Mom, Bill and Glenn who were the stepping stones to building my career as an aviation artist." she says. "All of them are deceased now, but are looking down at me, cheering me on and giving me the encouragement and inspiration to be what I was born to be." |
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