Within Reach

Shima Shanti is an Encaustic painter working in the ancient art form of painting with beeswax and fusing with fire. She paints visions of Peace revealing what lies beyond appearance, free of the confines of perception. Making art is her connection to Spirit; an open eye meditation. Her aesthetic is minimal. Her earth-tone palette is neutral, deep, and rich. In this simplicity, unexpected levels of complexity surface. Shima holds a special reverence for the unseen details in the complex and labor-intensive encaustic process/. The energy she infuses into each painting stirs something within the viewer, awakens us and beckons us to linger a moment longer in our shared appreciation of art. Shima's choice of all natural earth elements -- organic beeswax, earth pigments, fire-tree sap called damar resin and Baltic birch panels -- is a quiet whisper to the authenticity and integrity of her work. Shima's inspiration is borne from growing up in the abundance of water, the Rockies, rolling golden plains and endless big sky of Montana. This connection to Nature has gifted Shima with an innate sense of color and composition. Today in the lakeside hamlet of Del Dios near San Diego timeless joy and lost hours in her studio along with the simple pleasures of outdoor balance the business demands and travel of her artist career.