A
tragic loss in the life of Gilroy artist Shirley
Dwyer gave her the nudge to launch an art
career that began in 2004 when she joined the
Valle del Sur Art Guild. She now says she can’t
imagine life without painting.
Born in El Paso Texas, Dwyer and her family moved to the
Santa Clara Valley when she was ten years old. She always
loved the performing arts and played violin in her high
school orchestra, becoming an accomplished violinist. She
also played with a number of local orchestras including the
Nova Vista Symphony, the largest long-standing community
orchestra in the valley.
After working as a sales professional for ten years, Dwyer
became a custom jewelry designer. Her early enjoyment of
drawing came in handy in her jewelry making . Along the
way she also practiced karate and earned a second degree
black belt in shotokan karate.
“They are all creative pursuits and require a great deal of
concentration,” Dwyer said.
Attracted by what she described as the “lure of natural
beauty,” she and her husband Pat moved to Gilroy in 2002,
one year after the sudden and tragic loss of their 29-year-
old daughter, Rebecca, to illness. Having talked with her
daughter of painting together someday, Dwyer decided it was
time to honor Rebecca’s memory, so she began painting. To
this day, she said Rebecca continues to provide inspiration
when she’s painting.
“I know I’m doing what we both wanted to do.”
In 2006, she met Stefan Baumann, a well-known art-
ist and creator of the PBS series, “The Grand View,” at a
demonstration hosted by the Valle del Sur Art Guild. She
joined a Saratoga-based group led by Baumann, and studied
with other well-respected artists over the years, evolving into
the accomplished artist that she is today. She still considers
Bauman her friend and mentor.
Working mostly in oils, Dwyer’s unbelievably realistic
renderings include still lifes, landscapes, and architecture,
particularly missions. Many paintings of the Carmel mission
hang in her studio.
“The historic missions fascinate me,” Dwyer said. “They are
old with sad histories.”
Her favorite artists are Renaissance painters Michelangelo
and Botticelli. Interestingly, Boticelli also began his art career
in jewelry, having been a goldsmith before he began painting.
Dwyer’s natural treatment of the way light hits objects and
creates shadows is reminiscent of the Renaissance period,
evoking the kind of emotional response in the eyes of the
beholder that artists of that period strove to achieve.
Dwyer’s studio is in an upstairs room in her Gilroy home.
It is tidy with completed and in-progress paintings hanging
or stacked against the walls. She enjoys plein-air painting and
has a painting expedition planned with other artists in the
Sierras in October. She sometimes takes months to finish one
painting and finds comfort in listening to music while she
works; preferring mostly classical, piano and opera.
She said her life is driven by family, faith and friends.
When asked what drives her art she has a ready response.
“What drives me in my art is to create a sense of presence, so
that I can share the beauty I see in the world around me.”
Her stated mission reads, “My quest as an artist is to
stir the senses and awaken the spirit.” Anyone viewing
her art today would surely be stirred to utter “mission
accomplished.”
Dan Craig is a local artist
whose early works were in
the Realism style. He now
enjoys an Impressionistic
style. He lives in Morgan
Hill with his life partner, Kim.
GILROY • MORGAN HILL • SAN MARTIN
SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2016
gmhtoday.com
81