Shirra Benson
My work explores the dynamic relationship between landscape, memory, and material through gestural abstraction. Rooted in the natural environment of the Grey-Bruce region, I translate elemental forms, shifting weather, and seasonal transitions into richly textured surfaces built with palette knives, sgraffito, and other impasto techniques.
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.
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
~ Shirra
Painting Plein Air for the first time in the Owen Sound 2023 Artwalk Competition. I won 1st Place!
(above) Hiking the Niagara Escarpment
Background
Shirra Benson graduated from Georgian College’s Fine Arts program in 2007. After stepping away from painting to pursue her passion for equestrian show jumping, she eventually found her way back to art following the transition into motherhood. Immersed in the natural beauty of the Niagara Escarpment, the Bruce Trail, and the landscapes surrounding Georgian Bay, Shirra draws deep inspiration from her time spent hiking and exploring the region.
Based in Owen Sound, she is an emerging artist whose work has been exhibited locally and in surrounding communities, including Meaford, Thornbury, Collingwood, Southampton, and Stratford.
Nádúr
“Nature, constitution of the material world. Constitution of any particular thing; disposition, temper, mind; the nature, constitution or fitness of things; the sinful or depraved nature of man in a spiritual sense.”
— Quoted from: A Dictionary of the Gaelic Language
“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.”
“There is a distinct beauty in human-made artwork. Something that computers cannot ever replicate. My most recent abstract process is unplanned and intuitive in nature, that could never become a computer-generated work of art”
— Shirra
Contact
shirra@nadurartstudio.com
(647) 893-3096
Owen Sound River District, ON Canada