Killarney Sunset in Autumn. Oil on Canvas. 30 x 48 in.

Spirited Focus

By Deena Dolan

Exploring the dynamic relationship between landscape, memory, and material through gestural abstraction, Shirra Benson creates richly textured oils exploding with emotion, passion, and complex encounters.

AS A CHILD, it was her paternal grandmother who introduced Shirra Benson to the wonders of creating art. It came easily. There was an obvious spark that followed her throughout her school years growing up in Aurora, culminating in her graduation from Georgian College’s Fine Arts program in 2007. Even though she was excelling in producing art and selling pieces, there was a strong, tandem passion competing for her attention: horses. “I was obsessed. For a time, I pursued a career in equestrian show jumping and wanted eventually to become an Olympic show jumper.”

Becoming deeply disenchanted, however, with that world’s physical and ethical concerns, Shirra ultimately rounded up her horse, gathered her cat, and relocated to Collingwood, where she quickly fell under the Escarpment’s spell. Inspired by the rugged beauty and ever-changing moods of Georgian Bay, her joy of painting was ever present and, following what she describes as “the transformative experience of motherhood,” Shirra returned to her craft in a more substantive manner.

Time spent outdoors has always been the fuel driving Shirra’s creativity. Hiking tops the list of favourite activities, followed closely by golf, cycling, cross-country skiing, and simply enjoying the experience of exploring.

These moments allow her to filter out the noise and reconnect with the pure rhythms of nature. “My paintings aim to honour the spirit of place and the quiet strength found in nature.” Whether painting on site, en plein air, or by capturing a scene with her camera to be recreated in her studio, Shirra encapsulates the energy, mood, and emotion

Working in oils, Shirra humbly describes herself as an emerging artist. As I chatted with her, however, while visiting her home studio in Owen Sound, my impression of her work invoked a much more advanced suggestion. This woman is a true artist with an expertly developed, original style in combination with strong convictions about the importance of art in our everyday world. “There is a distinct beauty in human-made artwork. Something that computers cannot ever replicate.” Shirra takes pure delight in capturing simple, everyday scenes: familiar places where people have been and can easily identify. “I love being connected to the community.” Local golf courses, farmers’ markets, hiking trails, and ski runs have all been subjects readily purchased by collectors. She also frequently transforms clients’ special places, moments, and memories into commissioned pieces.

TPC (Toronto Players Club) Sawgrass, Hole No. 17. Oil on Canvas. 30 x 40 in.

“Rather than depict the land literally, I respond to it— allowing process, intuition, and physical engagement with the medium to shape each composition. The resulting works suggest layered histories: geological, environmental, and personal. Areas of dense, frenetic mark-making contrast with open fields of calm, echoing the rhythms of the landscape itself.”

Alongside her landscapes, Shirra also creates intensely interesting abstract pieces, exploding with shape, colour, and mood. “My most recent abstract process is unplanned and intuitive in nature, and could never become a computergenerated work of art.” Her ability to move between the realms of actual versus abstract is daunting. “Describing my own artwork is the most challenging part of being an artist… I feel deeply and release my energies onto the canvas. My style is developing and I am always playing and experimenting. I like to call this paint doodling, if there is such a thing.” With several paintings on the go at the same time, this uninhibited practice of exploration produces works that are both magical and profoundly personal.

“The imagery in my work replicates the elemental structures, forms, and colours I see around me, in passages filled with frenetic activity as well as areas of calm. In every instance, I encourage the viewer to encounter the work from their own perspective, in order to allow for variations in interpretation.”

Views from Margaret Paull side Trail in Autumn. Oil on Canvas. 30 x 48 in.

Driven by a deep reverence for the earth, her canvases evoke emotion, movement, and energy through her use of various techniques including wet-on-wet, impasto, and her dramatic use of sweeping gestures achieved with thick applications of paint. “Using a highly personal approach to gestural abstraction, my work engages with both the natural environment and historical artifacts in a textural language that implies elements of both, as channelled through personal experience and the painting process itself.”

Shirra Benson’s work has been exhibited in Owen Sound’s Artist Co-op and throughout surrounding communities, including Meaford, Thornbury, Collingwood, Southampton, and Stratford. Her website, Nádúr Art Studio, is well worth a visit. The Gaelic name was inspired both by Shirra’s background and her spirited focus on the varied aspects of nature.

“Whether inspired by a windswept escarpment, the wide stillness of Georgian Bay, or the slow erosion of a field, each painting invites the viewer to find their own way into it— interpreting form and gesture through the lens of their own experience.” E