Sheena Wilkie – Artist
The greatest storyteller I ever knew was my father. He grew up during the Second World War in a village by the sea in the Highlands of Scotland. His childhood was anything but ordinary. His days were filled with adventures in places like the Fairy Glen and the mystical Clootie Well, with a pet monkey named Jinny and his loyal dog, Beauty. My father’s tales paved the way for my own storytelling. With every story I tell, I honour him—and the magical Highland adventures that shaped both his childhood and my own.
I continue to dedicate my life to the art of narrative, using words, photographs, and now brush and pigment to bring stories to life, with my heart and soul fully in the work.
For more than 35 years, my professional path in Communications—across both traditional and new media—has been devoted to shaping stories visually and in print. Along the way, I have been honoured to create narratives for organizations such as the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, Air Canada, Canadian Blood Services, the Canadian Football League, the Olympic Integrated Security Unit, the Canadian Association for Photographic Art, and the Canadian Red Cross.
Midway through this work, I returned to BCIT to complete an Honours Diploma in Graphic Art and Photography, where I studied colour theory, composition, typography, and visual design. That training deepened my understanding of how we observe, organize, and communicate what we see—principles that continue to guide my photography and are now shaping the direction of my painting practice and teaching.
Photography has been one of my most enduring artistic companions. It taught me to observe carefully, to translate light into memory, and to notice the beauty of the ordinary—skills I now carry forward into my work with sketchbooks and watercolour.
Over the years, I have been fortunate to receive recognition for my work: being named a Fellow and Honorary Member of the Canadian Association for Photographic Art, serving as a CAPA Certified Judge, and working as longtime Editor-in-Chief of Canadian Photography magazine. Yet beyond the honours, it is the act of seeing—and inviting others to see—that continues to matter most to me.
Today, my practice is moving more fully toward watercolour painting and urban and rural sketching, where working with brush and pigment allows me to explore observation in a slower, more intuitive way, responding to place, memory, and everyday lived experience. Through Sheena Wilkie Art Studio, I continue to develop this work through sketchbooks, paintings, and learning opportunities that invite others to slow down, look closely, and discover their own visual language.
Through my words and art, I explore and share the same sense of wonder and possibility that my father’s stories first sparked in me.
Sheena Wilkie – Sheena Wilkie Art Studio