Sheila Kho
Whether it is through painting, pottery, jewellery design or urban sketching, it is undeniable how art plays a significant part in Sheila’s life. In her paintings, her abstract expressionism style allows her to venture outside the norm. Sheila is constantly evolving in her skills as she eagerly reads and researches into new forms of art creation. Her choice of colors is often denoted by her emotion. As an abstract expressionist, Sheila’s work is an expression of herself, born out of profound emotion and universal themes. This has led her to explore various forms of abstract art with many different mediums. Sheila sees herself as an observer of the world and draws her inspiration from her surroundings. Sheila uses rich tones to accentuate the interpretation of her paintings in her work in watercolour, acrylic and oil on canvas. Started as a hobby in her younger days, Sheila only seriously pursue art in 2010 and has exhibited her work in numerous exhibitions since then. Many pieces of her art are permanently exhibited in Hilton Kuching, and in homes and offices in Malaysia, England and Australia. Sheila has also donated her work for art auctions in the past in aid of Lions Nursing Home, Lions clubs and The Federation Thalassemia Malaysia Society’s fund raising. Working with the Autistic community takes up a big part in Sheila’s life. She is a full-time volunteer at Kuching Autistic Association for the last ten years. Since her involvement, the association’s prevocational training has included art and beading therapy for the students. Sheila has organized two art exhibitions for the Autistic artists in the last four years and helped to raise fund for the training center through the events. In 2018, she single-handedly set up the Autism Art Gallery in Hilton, Kuching in order to promote Autism art to the public. The gallery is well patronized by local and overseas visitors. Sheila now takes up an advisory role in the running of the gallery which is managed by Autistic individuals and volunteers. When time permits, Sheila joins Urban Sketchers Kuching in their monthly “sketch crawls”. As a frequent traveler, Sheila creates personal documents of her impressions and memories of the places that she visits with sketches. Since January 2019, Sheila has started to expand her creativity through getting her hands dirty with clay. Pottery is a new and enticing way for transferring her creativity into form. Besides painting, Sheila is a full-time beadwork artist. Her work is sold exclusively through an international hotel in Kuching. Sheila is a member of the Sarawak Artist Society, Urban Sketchers Kuching, Society Atelier Sarawak and Society of Arts and Craft Sarawak.
