Biography S. Kincheloe

Sharon KINCHELOE

Sharon Morris was born in Winston-Salem, North Carolinain in the year 1952, but she was raised in Staunton, Virginia, where she now resides with her husband Alan Kincheloe.

She attended Ferrum College, Tidewater Community College and Old Dominion University. After leaving school, she worked for a creative production house for the arts and also as a graphic artist. After remaining in the Tidewater area for ten years, and making frequent trips back home to the valley, she decided to make a permanent move to the mountains and rivers west of the Blue Ridge.

Sharon and her husband built a home in the Shenandoah Valley, where she fell in love with the many wildflowers. "Some of the wildflowers," she says, "have such a shocking beauty, like finding a group of Pink Lady's Slippers pushing though the damp leaves in early May."

Although Sharon and Alan call the Appalachian mountains home, they have also made many back country trips in the western U.S., Canada, Alaska, Mexico, Hawaii, and New Zealand. Sharon's renderings of this wide ranging flora are reminiscent of the early 19th century botanical illustrators. When she is able, (by permit or permission) to remove plants from the soil, she includes the root structures and fruit study in her drawings. She feels this allows the character of the entire plant to be enjoyed.

Sharon has rapidly become famous among wildflower enthusiasts, botanists, ornithologists, and naturalists alike for her delicately detailed illustrations. She does her etchings and colored pencil drawings with great detail, however, she feels the need for exacting detail should not detract from a free and realistic composition.

Her work has been published in Virginia Wildlife magazine and she participates in numerous art shows thoughout the country. Sharon's work has also been published in the book Contemporary Botanical Artists, a collection by Dr. Shirley Sherwood in London, England. Carnegie Mellon's Hunt Institute for Botanical Documentation has purchased Sharon's work for their permanent collection. She has won many awards and has exhibited her drawings in several one-person shows including Roanoke Valley Science Museum, the Virginia Living Museum, and the Shenandoah Valley Art Center in Virginia, Fernbank Science Center and Calloway Gardens in Georgia, Brookside Gardens in Maryland, the National Wildlife Federation, and the National Arboretum in Washington, D.C. She is also a member of the American Society of Botanical Artists.

Her drawings have sold from Alaska to Florida and to visitors from many places in Europe and the far east, however, the very best appraisals of her work have come from the occasional bees that have knocked themselves out trying to get to the pollen... And, from the many people who have looked at Sharon's display and have identified a flower, bird or insect from her illustrations.