Randall Shier Born in Vancouver in 1958, Shier discovered a love for drawing and painting in his early years. At the age of eight, one of Shier’s paintings created during a “Summer in the Park” art program was selected by a Federation of Canadian Artist’s jury for exhibition in the Vancouver Art Gallery. A few years later during a family vacation to New York City, he became enamored by buildings and skyscrapers and found a new passion, architecture. After High School, Shier studied architecture in Los Angeles at the University of Southern California. Upon graduation, he moved back to Vancouver with a deeper sense of art and architecture and how it relates to culture, climate and geography. He continued to paint landscapes, townscapes and still life on a casual basis in his favourite medium, watercolour. Shier also drew buildings and village scenes in his sketchbook during his travels through Europe.

Shier moved to the Okanagan in 2004 and immediately connected with the unique landscape of orchards, vineyards, lakes and semi-arid mountains.

In 2008, after twenty years of neglect, Shier picked up his brushes again and began exploring other mediums, specifically acrylic and oil on canvas. After a year of experimentation and art classes in Italy, oil emerged as the clear winner. When approaching a blank canvas, Shier believes that “form, colour and delight are essential elements in my paintings. In approaching subjects, I look for beauty in the familiar and seek to capture a glimpse of the eternal.”


Education
During university, I took several art courses while obtaining a degree in architecture (1976-82).
Since 2008, I have taken several workshops in Kelowna with Gene Prokop, Wanda Lock, Ken Campbell, Mike Svob, Ingrid Christensen and Jerry Markham. Also, while in Florence for three months in 2009, I took a 6 week tempera and oil painting class.


Artist Statement
For me, creativity is about the idea, with art being the implementation of that idea. It begins visually with observation. I seek to discover wonder in the ordinary. I have always been drawn to the landscape genre, both natural and man-made. I am inspired by townscapes and cityscapes, as much as by natural landscapes. When I consider a subject, I search for the divine and the temporal. For example, a natural landscape is less interesting to me when it lacks a human element, whether it be a building, a path, a vineyard or a figure. I love the contrast between the touch of the Creator and the touch of man. To me the raw beauty of nature is more powerful when complemented with human endeavour.

I am also interested in the traditional genre of historical Biblical painting. This interest emerged after living for three months in Italy. I had previously felt suppressed in this area, coming from a tradition that rejected religious imagery. However, I believe that divine story and mystery can speak to us through the language of painting in ways that words cannot.

My artistic influence comes from my belief in a Creator, who not only brought the universe into being, but also desires relationship with man. Therefore I seek to express God’s invisible qualities as evidenced in nature. We are all given the gift of seeing the divine because I believe we have eternity in our hearts.