Shirley is a painter currently splitting her time between Truckee and San Francisco, California. She came to painting as part of her Master's Degree program in Art History. The program required studio courses to better understand the artistic process. She decided to take oil painting classes because her area of study was Renaissance Art. She was fortunate to spend a semester painting in Florence, Italy, where she honed her skills. When she completed her graduate thesis, she found she had so much more to say with the art she was creating. She was only beginning to develop her artistic style and wanted to continue exploring her creative side. Shirley continues to take classes in Watercolor, Drawing, and Painting in San Francisco and the Lake Tahoe Region.