Sharleen Boaden, who was born in Pietermaritzburg, SA, creates impressionistic paintings from her studio in KwaZulu Natal, South Africa. Her work is represented by selected galleries country wide and her paintings can also be found in Ireland, Italy, Amsterdam, Hong Kong, Sweden, USA and the UK. For several years, she has been included in the top twenty selling artists at Pietermaritzburg’s Art in the Park. Sharleen began her artistic expression with poetry and a few of her poems were published. In 2000, she turned to the Fine Arts and now paints the poetry she feels. She tries to evoke an emotional connection between her paintings and its viewers and hopes for them to see more into the subject than just what is on the surface. “In my paintings, I endeavor to capture the emotive quality in the subjects I portray. I am an impressionist, rather than a realist, preferring the viewer to be drawn by the essence of the subject rather than by it being just a replica of real life”.