Sheila Healey, was born in 1915 in Buenos Aires

Buenos Aires

Buenos Aires is the capital and largest city of Argentina, and the second-largest metropolitan area in South America, after São Paulo. It is located on the western shore of the estuary of the Río de la Plata, on the southeastern coast of the South American continent...

, Argentina

Argentina

Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...

 to Anglo Scots parents. After attending school in West Sussex

West Sussex

West Sussex is a county in the south of England, bordering onto East Sussex , Hampshire and Surrey. The county of Sussex has been divided into East and West since the 12th century, and obtained separate county councils in 1888, but it remained a single ceremonial county until 1974 and the coming...

 and Kent

Kent

Kent is a county in southeast England, and is one of the home counties. It borders East Sussex, Surrey and Greater London and has a defined boundary with Essex in the middle of the Thames Estuary. The ceremonial county boundaries of Kent include the shire county of Kent and the unitary borough of...

, she taught English in Argentina

Argentina

Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...

 after the death of her father in 1930. In 1935 she moved to England to stay with her sisters. Marrying Hal Foote, they moved to Mexico City

Mexico City

Mexico City is the Federal District , capital of Mexico and seat of the federal powers of the Mexican Union. It is a federal entity within Mexico which is not part of any one of the 31 Mexican states but belongs to the federation as a whole...

 in 1936 where she studied painting and drawing with Angelina Beloff

Angelina Beloff

Angelina Beloff was a Russian painter and sculptor, who worked predominantly in Mexico.- Biography :Beloff originally decided to study pediatrics, but then she matriculated to St. Petersburg Academy of Arts in 1904, where she studied until 1909...

, the first wife of Diego Rivera

Diego Rivera

Diego María de la Concepción Juan Nepomuceno Estanislao de la Rivera y Barrientos Acosta y Rodríguez was a prominent Mexican painter born in Guanajuato, Guanajuato, an active communist, and husband of Frida Kahlo . His large wall works in fresco helped establish the Mexican Mural Movement in...

. Here, during the period of the Mexican art

Mexican art

Mexican art consists of the various visual and plastic arts which developed over the geographical area now known as Mexico. The development of these arts roughly follow the history of Mexico, divided into the Mesoamerican era, the colonial period, with the period after the gaining of Independence...

 renaissance, she met José Clemente Orozco

José Clemente Orozco

José Clemente Orozco was a Mexican social realist painter, who specialized in bold murals that established the Mexican Mural Renaissance together with murals by Diego Rivera, David Alfaro Siqueiros, and others...

 who admired her work and advised her: throw away your art books - just work. In 1938 they moved to Guatemala City

Guatemala City

Guatemala City , is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Guatemala and Central America...

; her marriage ended after 5 years and in 1940 she met archaeologist explorer Giles Healey

Giles Healey

Giles Greville Healey was born in 1901 in New York City. He was educated in France and Germany and later attended Choate Preparatory School; graduating from Yale University in 1924 with a degree in chemistry...

 whom she married in 1943, settling in Los Angeles

Los Ángeles

Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...

 before a further filming trip to Mexico. Encouraged by sculptor Henry Moore

Henry Moore

Henry Spencer Moore OM CH FBA was an English sculptor and artist. He was best known for his semi-abstract monumental bronze sculptures which are located around the world as public works of art....

 in New York in 1946, they moved westwards to Pacific Palisades and in 1947 she studied with both Rico Lebrun

Rico Lebrun

Rico Lebrun was an Italy-born, Italian-American painter and sculptor.-Biography :Lebrun was born on December 10, 1900 in Naples, Italy. His formal art education consisted of attending technical school and art classes at night, studying the Old Masters in museums, and assisting fresco painters...

 and William Brice

William Brice

William Brice was an artist known for his large-scale abstract paintings.-Biography:Born to actress Fannie Brice and gambler/criminal Nicky Arnstein, April 23, 1921, he spent his early years living with his mother and his sister Frances , while their father was in prison on a variety of charges...

 in Los Angeles. After moving to West Sussex

West Sussex

West Sussex is a county in the south of England, bordering onto East Sussex , Hampshire and Surrey. The county of Sussex has been divided into East and West since the 12th century, and obtained separate county councils in 1888, but it remained a single ceremonial county until 1974 and the coming...

 from Big Sur

Big Sur

Big Sur is a sparsely populated region of the Central Coast of California where the Santa Lucia Mountains rise abruptly from the Pacific Ocean. The name "Big Sur" is derived from the original Spanish-language "el sur grande", meaning "the big south", or from "el país grande del sur", "the big...

, California in 1970, she learnt that many of her paintings had been destroyed in a fire in Big Sur

Big Sur

Big Sur is a sparsely populated region of the Central Coast of California where the Santa Lucia Mountains rise abruptly from the Pacific Ocean. The name "Big Sur" is derived from the original Spanish-language "el sur grande", meaning "the big south", or from "el país grande del sur", "the big...

 in 1971. During her time in Mexico and Big Sur, the Healeys' friendships with other artists are well documented; such as Lee Mullican

Lee Mullican

Lee Mullican was a painter and art teacher, and an influential member of the Dynaton Movement. He was a member of the UCLA art faculty from 1962 to 1990. He married Luchita Hurtado; their son Matt Mullican is a New York City based artist; their son John Mullican is a Los Angeles based writer and...

  and Luchita Hurtado

Luchita Hurtado

Luchita Hurtado is a painter from Santa Monica, California and Arroyo Seco, New Mexico. Born in Caracas, Venezuela, her second husband was artist and collector Wolfgang Paalen. She lived and travelled in Mexico with Paalen, encountering Rufino Tamayo, Frida Kahlo, Remedios Varos, Leonora...

, Kaffe Fassett

Kaffe Fassett

Kaffe Fassett is an American-born artist who is best known for his colourful designs in the decorative arts—needlepoint, patchwork, knitting, painting and ceramics...

 and Charles and Ray Eames

Charles and Ray Eames

Charles Ormond Eames, Jr and Bernice Alexandra "Ray" Eames were American designers, who worked in and made major contributions to modern architecture and furniture. They also worked in the fields of industrial and graphic design, fine art and film.-Charles Eames:Charles Eames, Jr was born in...

Sheila Healey's changing themes over 75 years have displayed continuity with both the portrait and with handling of colour, an essential human-ness being seen as a consistent thread through all her art.

Exhibitions

1943 Vincent Price

Vincent Price

Vincent Leonard Price, Jr. was an American actor, well known for his distinctive voice and serio-comic attitude in a series of horror films made in the latter part of his career.-Early life and career:Price was born in St...

 Gallery, Beverley Hills

1946 Guatemala City

1947 Pasadena Art Institute, Pasadena

1947 Los Angeles County Museum of Art

Los Angeles County Museum of Art

The Los Angeles County Museum of Art is an art museum in Los Angeles, California. It is located on Wilshire Boulevard along Museum Row in the Miracle Mile vicinity of Los Angeles, adjacent to the George C. Page Museum and La Brea Tar Pits....

1947 University of California, Los Angeles

University of California, Los Angeles

The University of California, Los Angeles is a public research university located in the Westwood neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, USA. It was founded in 1919 as the "Southern Branch" of the University of California and is the second oldest of the ten campuses...

1948 Norlyst Gallery, New York

New York

New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...

 solo show

1954-64 Coast Gallery, Big Sur

Big Sur

Big Sur is a sparsely populated region of the Central Coast of California where the Santa Lucia Mountains rise abruptly from the Pacific Ocean. The name "Big Sur" is derived from the original Spanish-language "el sur grande", meaning "the big south", or from "el país grande del sur", "the big...

, California

1999 Sheila Healey Retrospective: A Painter's Journey: from Buenos Aires to Big Sur 20 September - 2 October 1999 - 27, Cork Street, London