Artist

Watercolor painting has been Shirley’s favorite activity since she was a teenager. Her devotion to watercolor painting has gradually become a life-long study of techniques and creativity. To Shirley, painting with watercolors is exciting and challenging, especially when it comes to maintaining the color transparency and the rhythm of colors during the process. Watercolor can create wonderful and beautiful surprises in one moment, but then can plunge you into chaos in another.

Born in Hong Kong, Shirley studied graphic design at California College of the Arts and worked in New York, Toronto and San Francisco. Shirley’s formal training and years of working experience as a designer have significantly impacted her aesthetic approach in painting. In her composition, there is a strong emphasis on perspective and a sharp contrast in shapes to create depth. She allows her colors to collide into each other and plays with hard and soft edges, enshrining bright highlights and layering dark shadows.

Shirley enjoys painting all kinds of subjects as each new subject is her experimentation, hence she can always find areas of success and disappointment on each piece. She also believes that good painting subjects are all around us and she does not need to travel very far to find them. Among her favorite subjects are ordinary scenes such as the vegetation along a path in her neighborhood (Growing Wild), a welder at a construction site (Welding in Sunset) and trees in a local park (Autumn Shadows). Although Shirley likes the comfort of working in her studio, she also loves the challenge of painting outdoors (en plein air) when weather permits. Shirley is also a painting instructor teaching students of all ages.

Any questions, please email: shirley@limwatercolor.com

Member of Santa Clara Valley Watercolor Society and California Watercolor Association