Smith Rock Cottonwood

From Sharon...

"I enjoy painting the beauty I see around me as a way of honoring and sharing those moments that touch me emotionally. I paint for myself and really love it when you, my viewers and collectors get pleasure from my art as well. My hook is always the way light and shadow plays over my subject matter and am fascinated with abstract shapes and color and how I feel about what I am seeing. Landscapes, seascapes, still life and people all have their stories and I hope that through my art, you feel what I see - and enjoy!” 

Sharon Abbott-Furze is an oil painter living in Vancouver, Washington.  Her work is expressionistic realism and sometimes heavily influenced with abstract shapes, inspired by people and their stories and the many moods of nature, particularly the sea. 

Her passion for art started at a very early age - she used her Father’s linoleum knife to draw figures on the roof of their home when she was 6 years old - not well-received but didn’t stop her from practicing her art.  As a child, she loved to draw but only started painting with oils later in her life, painted for a time in the late 1980s when several of her paintings were shown at Portland OR Street of Dreams. Even when not painting, she was consumed with her love of art, continually painting in her head, visiting art shows and museums and studying people and nature. She started painting seriously again the end of 2013 when she joined Primary Elements Gallery in Cannon Beach OR and regularly participated in Cannon Beach art events Spring Unveiling, Stormy Weather Art Festival Plein Air and More, and has been featured in their local newspaper and other coastal publications. Since the closing of that gallery, she has been represented by RJ Gallery in McMinnville, OR. 

Sharon’s award-winning paintings are in collections throughout the United States, Switzerland, Canada and Italy. “The Price of Freedom” was published in the 2015 Art Edition of Rain.  

Sharon has studied with several well-known artists and continues to study to improve her art and learn new ways to express her stories on canvas.