Shelley Keim Cade challenges herself to paint in different styles.
Artist Shelley Cade doesn’t see herself as a competitive person.
“I’ve never been an athlete or in competition in board games; nothing has made me feel like I have to win at this,” the 38-year-old says. “But when it comes to art, I feel the challenge. And more so, an inner competition to set a goal and work at achieving that. It seems to be, ‘Let me find my niche that’s special and not already being done.’”
Her niche is her deft ability to simultaneously create captivating expressionist portraits and serene impressionist skyscapes in her light-filled, second-floor space at Railside Studios. “It’s my playtime,” she says of how she might turn leftover palette paint into an abstract, create texture through wrinkling a raw canvas or distressing a resin layer, or incorporate thread into a portrait.
Her two styles allow her to explore the chaos of sketching faces in charcoal, pencil, and ink on an acrylic background and the calm of blending brushstrokes of oils to achieve the right moments of blue sky and clouds. She paints them using only one brush, wearing it nearly to the bristles’ ends before adding it to the piece’s back with her signature as a finishing detail.
“While I could go down one avenue and strictly pursue it, I like to go through a collection of people and switch to the skies. It all goes back to that paintbrush feeling,” she says, adding that the faces are created quickly “out of my head, where with the skies, I feel like I have a little bit more control. It’s repetitive, but you always get a different look.”
A Rochester, New York, native, Cade moved to Greenville with a friend 15 years ago after graduating from Niagara University with a degree in hotel management, events, and hospitality. Although her love of art goes back to childhood—she was “the quiet cousin in the corner sketching” at boisterous extended family gatherings, she says—she pursued that degree because “I didn’t think at the time I could make something out of art.”
“But art has always stuck with me,” she adds. Two years ago, she pivoted from running a successful wedding- and event-planning business to being a full-time painter and creative (she is also the gallery assistant at Spoonbill Gallery and a represented artist).
“I don’t want to go in the direction other artists gravitate to, so I will find the minority of something and want to grow that,” Cade says, adding that she is determined to prove wrong people who say “portraits don’t sell.”
The Styles of Shelley Keim Cade
Her portraits are striking from a distance, with distinctive circular eyes, broad shoulders, and narrow necks. Yet, they reveal more details when seen from a closer vantage point.
“I like the fact that they might feel a little bit masculine, and they might feel a little bit feminine. But they kind of merge into both, depending on which feature you’re looking at,” says Cade, who started painting portraits in a high school art class and discovered a love of Swiss artist Alberto Giacometti’s sketching and imperfect proportions.
Her skyscapes grew from the emotions she experienced after losing a core group of friends. “It was a rough time, but it allowed me to come to the studio more,” she says. “I released those feelings into paintings.”
“That time has passed now, but I still enjoy the skies,” she adds. “They’re no longer about heartbreak and loss, but just the joy of creating them.”
A Closer Look
Cade neatly shares her wide-ranging interests outside her studio on her website, including everything from being a weekday vegan, live music lover, and cat lady to interior design fanatic, art collector, and gushing partner to her husband, Tristan (the two were married earlier this year).
“I like connecting, and I want people to know that art is a huge part of my life,” she says. “But it’s fun to share those little things about myself. And I equally like to learn about the clients buying my art, who they are and what their homes look like.”
Echoes of Hospitality
While no longer working in the industry, Cade has continued incorporating her love of hospitality through unique art experiences and services. Her Art and Appetite events invite guests into her studio to enjoy local-chef-prepared dinners, see completed collections, and talk with her about her process. Her new service, The Art Experience, allows her to visit collectors’ homes or businesses and consult about a potential piece before painting it on-site, framing it if needed, and installing it. “The goal is to be able to come to them and explore who they are, what their space looks like, and make that perfect piece of commissioned art,” Cade says.
For more about Cade, visit her website at studiotwoart.com or follow @shelleykeim on Instagram.
