Louise Sheldon - Class of 1991

Louise Sheldon, Class of 1991

Lou is an Australian-based artist who uses mixed media on canvas and linen. She started exploring colour at age five and was taught by her dad, a self-taught artist who was diagnosed with a brain tumour when she was two and died when she was eight. 

In a nod to her Dad's humour, and to honour the time they spent ‘finding the hook’ in Geoff "Jeff" Hook's regular cartoons when she was a little girl, you will find (if you look hard enough) her dad's first initials “RA” (Robin Arthur) in each of her paintings.

Lou has an international client base and sells her paintings all around Australia and the world to private homes and businesses. Her works have been sent to Canada, Sweden, United Kingdom, America, Egypt, Dubai, Singapore, Germany, Luxembourg, Italy and Switzerland. She has received commissions from KIIS FM in Sydney, Green Art Gallery (Dubai) as well as various construction companies and interior designers around Australia. Lou has also had pieces featured on The Block and 60 Minutes (Australia). For more visit Lou Sheldon Art here.

Q: What have you been up to since leaving Kilvington? 

A: This is hard to summarise in a few sentences, but I’ll do my best! After completing my degree, I moved to the UK and worked in England and Scotland for a couple of years. Upon returning home, I continued a corporate career in recruitment whilst doing quite a few TV acting and presenting roles for about 20 years. Then at 40, my life took a complete change. I went back to study painting as a hobby which ended up taking off as a career and I have been very fortunate to sell my paintings all around the world ever since. I currently have a two-year contract with a UK gallery group and send most of my paintings to the UK.

Q: What is your favourite memory of Kilvington? 

A: I think the opportunities that the School provided to me. My involvement in the school musicals and with the Music School in general shaped who I became after school due to the confidence it gave me. Most important are my memories with who I went to school with and shared experiences with. I appreciate now more than ever how nice it is when people know the real you and you don’t have to explain who you are. You share a history and they were there in your most formative years. My time with teachers like Mrs Venn, who invested so much of their own time and energy in my development, will be precious to me for the rest of my life.

Q: Did you end up where you expected you would when you finished school? 

A: I always wanted to do something with my art, music or drama but never dreamed I would actually make a living off two out of three of those things. I thought that maybe one day I would get married and have kids, but that just never happened. Instead, I have been fortunate enough to experience a career that has been so versatile and interesting.

Q: How did your time at Kilvington prepare you for what you are doing now? 

A: No dream was ever too big or unrealistic in the eyes of the School. If you dreamt it, they would encourage you and support you all the way. At the same time, they made sure you were equipped to deal with the real things that mattered and didn’t have your head in the clouds too much. I found it to be an extremely nurturing environment. You did not get lost in the crowd and no one was ‘just a number’. If you had strengths or talent in a certain area, the School drew that out of you and helped you reach your potential, no matter what that was.

Q: What have been some of the biggest challenges you’ve had to face to get where you are now? 

A: What I do is highly competitive so sometimes the biggest challenge is simply to keep believing in myself and having a clear vision when times are tough. 

Q: What advice would you give to others who might be faced with similar obstacles? 

A: If you are passionate about what you do and have a commercial mindset and really believe that you can make it, then throw whatever you have at it and give it 120%. Make sure you learn from others who have come before you and listen to people you respect. Learn from your mistakes but don’t let them define you. If you have a setback; pick yourself up, dust yourself off and move forward grateful for the experience (easier said than done!).

Q: What has been your biggest highlight so far? 

A: I think when it comes to my painting my biggest highlight was getting a two-year contract recently with a gallery group in the UK.

Q: What excites you about the future? 

A: The unknown!

Q: How did what you learnt at Kilvington help make you the person you are today? 

A: I think the School does a great job at teaching the basics! Turn up on time, have manners, be polite, treat others as you would like to be treated etc. 

Q: Any advice for our current Year 12 students as they embark on the next stage of their journey? 

A: Follow your heart and follow your dreams, both professionally and personally. Work hard at things that matter and let go of things that don’t. Find balance in all you do and take time to smell the roses along the way.