BIOGRAPHY

SHIRLEY ANNE, born of Welsh, French and Mi'kmaq heritage, in the Maritime province of New Brunswick, has crossed Canada from east to west several times during her lifetime, was raised mostly in Montreal, Quebec.

Multidisciplinary artist Shirley Anne currently works in drawing, painting, mixed media works, photography and tapestry. 

An interest in textiles led Shirley to start her early arts training in Batik, followed by fabric weaving which led to a line of designer fabric hand woven for a fashion clothier, and later utilitarian textile objects for home furnishings, tapestries and wall hangings, for shops, and two galleries in Ottawa. She was Artist in Residence for Sault College in Elliot Lake, Ontario.  

She received her Fine Arts education at Cambrian College in Ontario in Painting, Printmaking, and Textiles and then received her BA cum laude in Anthropology at Laurentian University in Northern Ontario. Later she furthered her formal education in the west at Alberta College of Art and Design and the University of Calgary in Painting, Drawing, Interior Design and Visual Arts. She studied Gobelin Tapestry in the south of France, and in workshops in the USA and Mexico. She attended Photography workshops in France, Spain, Morocco, Bali and Santa Fe, New Mexico in the USA.

For a period of time, while still maintaining a studio practice, Shirley declined to publicly exhibit her work in order to devote her energies to an arts management career in galleries, an arts council, a fringe theatre festival, and a music conservatory, in Ontario, British Columbia and Alberta, where she actively engaged in arts advocacy in political arenas. She holds an Advanced Arts Management Certificate from the Banff Arts Centre in Alberta.

Shirley Anne taught History of Art and Colour Theory in a collegial setting in Ontario and British Columbia for five years and conducted workshops in Tapestry and Textiles. 

She established Whitson Creek Gallery, in Ontario, featuring fine craftsmen and artists from across Canada and she taught in the Tapestry Studio. At the inception of the Kelowna Art Gallery, in British Columbia, Shirley created and managed The Works Shop and Arts Rental Program.

Shirley Anne currently lives and maintains her art studio on Manitoulin Island in Lake Huron in Ontario.

Travelling is an important part of her inspiration and this has led to extensive travels on five continents and several islands.