Biography

Kay Shropshire Heller

Born 1943 in Rolling Fork, Mississippi, the Delta was Kay Shropshire Heller's home for many years. Even though she now resides in Madison county, the flat, fertile land still lures her back. Ties to the region have held strong no matter where she has lived over the years. Ties to artistic creativeness have also held strong.

However, art was not part of our school curriculum during her early education. Kay's first basic art courses were at Delta State University but upon transferring to the Memphis Art Academy the door was opened to a myriad of classes and a variety of instructors with diverse styles: watercolor and oil painting, life drawing, design, pottery, and sculpture.

A later stint at the University of Mississippi, she majored in theater set design, which proved fun but impractical. During this period she met and married her husband, Gerald Heller, of 35 years. Art took a backseat as years flew by: the birth of two daughters, her husband's military career taking them from one coast to the other, not once, but twice, and in between, a tour in Hawaii. Using her talent, she helped her children with school art projects using craft paint and construction paper instead of oils and canvas. Not until 2004 would she pick up a palette, take a brush, and lay paint to a canvas again.

Although the re-learning process has been difficult, she has been fortunate to study for almost five years with a well-known Mississippi artist, Bob Tompkins. Under his guidance she feels she has continued to grow as an artist once more. Participation in workshops have helped the process continue. She enjoys using oils to paint Delta landscapes en plein air but when weather doesn't permit, inspiration comes from a never ending supply of subjects provided by her photographer daughter. Failing that, there's always a still life waiting in the wings.

Currently, Kay is a member of several art associations and participates in local art shows and galleries. She aspires to paint everyday even if it is one goal she does not always achieve. However, a canvas is always on the easel, a "painting in progress" just waiting to be completed!

Workshops
Kay has attended and participated in artist workshops offered by:
Joe Anna Arnett
Clayton J Beck, III
Roger Dale Brown
Dot Courson
Duff Dorrough
Alan Flattmann
Qiang Huang
Robert Johnson
William Kalwick, Jr.
Stapleton Kearns
Ellen Langford
Robert Lemler
Lucy Mazzaferro
John Pototschnik
Bob Rohm
Matt Smith
Bob Tompkins
Pat Walker-Fields

Kay participated in the Oil Painters of America Annual Great Paint Out, Fall 2009, in Mississippi.

Associations
Delta Artists Association, President, 2012-2013
Greenville Arts Council
Mississippi Artists Guild
Mississippi Visual Arts Directory
Plein Air Artists of Mississippi