A recently retired artist from Melfort has used her retirement to fully embrace her creative side.
Sheila Jensen will hold her first ever exhibition at the Sherven-Smith Art Gallery in the Kerry Vickar Centre until the end of August. Jensen’s exhibition entitled “Vibrant Layers: Exploring the Spectrum of Life” is her first official exhibition and she is proud to be able to show her work in a gallery in Melfort.
“It’s pretty cool to be able to have the city of Melfort see my work,” Jensen said. “A lot of people knew I was a teacher, but they didn’t realize that I actually did art on the side. I just didn’t have a lot of time to do it when I was teaching, so it was mostly just family and friends.
“I had always painted cards for students when they were graduating in Star City, but I just didn’t have time to really produce a massive amount of work,” she added.
Jensen said that painting is her favourite medium to work in especially oil and acrylic but she has also worked in watercolour. She said that the title of the exhibition is inspired by how colourful the artwork is.
“I’ve always been drawn to colour and any of my students will know that we always talked a lot about colour and how it could affect a painting and the mood of the painting and how it could affect the shapes and the texture and whatnot, so it’s a very colourful exhibition,” Jensen said.
Jensen spent 30 years teaching in Melfort and area, first at Star City School for 22 years and finishing her career at Melfort and Unit Comprehensive Collegiate (MUCC). She said that her artwork was a private thing
“This is very different, for me to have my stuff public,” she said. “It’s a little uncomfortable because artwork’s really personal, but it’s been well received and it’s really neat to have my students see my work as well.”
Jensen has even begun to promote herself as an artist through social media such as Instagram and Facebook and through appearing at events.
“I didn’t even have a Facebook account. I had a teacher one, but I never had a private one, so it’s kind of weird,” Jensen said.
Jensen also promoted herself through recent appearances at the Back Alley Tour in Melfort and at Hey Days in Shell Lake
“The Back Alley Tour last year, I was just kind of getting started and I didn’t have a lot of pieces. I had more art with me and this year because most of it was at the gallery. I had a lot of prints and then a few originals.”
Jensen said that Hey Days is really about people who are at the lake and her art was well received.
“People that go to the lake would appreciate having that artwork when they go home, so that was kind of neat,” Jensen said.
Jensen also had her work on display at Sandra’s Framing, Gallery and Gifts in Prince Albert in February and plans to have it at the Thyme Bistro and Boutique in Watson in December 2026 and January 2027.
Because this is basically the premise that I’m getting is this is like your first public, really public exposure to art.
“It’s fun to be able to show my art and meet with people,” she said. “Hopefully it’ll show people what’s possible.”
Jensen said that she also does commissions as well and she said that is growing.
“It takes a while to get going and produce some artwork so people can kind of see what you’re capable of. Then if they want something specific, the commission option is there,” Jensen said.
She also produces originals in note card form and that has also gone over positively.
“Sometimes People don’t want an original, but they want to maybe frame something or send it in a card. That’s kind of been growing as well,” Jensen said.
For more about Jensen you can visit her website www.sheilajensen.com or her Facebook and Instagram pages.
michael.oleksyn@paherald.sk.ca
