Born in Maracaibo, Venezuela to British parents. Raised in Europe and North America. He has taught at Centre College since 1983, and held the Paul L. Cantrell Professorship of Art from 2002-2005. A nationally recognized artist whose paintings are held in museum, academic, corporate, and private collections across the United States. In the spring of 2004, the Evansville Museum of Art presented a major retrospective exhibit of Tapley’s art, displaying 30 of his still-life works from the last 10 years. American Artist magazine published one of his large still-life paintings on its cover in November 1999 along with a feature article inside. In that article the writer asserts that Tapley “masterfully blends hard-earned classical technique with a vision that is thoroughly modern and personal.” The New Yorker reviewed his 1998 show at Tatistcheff Gallery in New York City, commenting that the “works are intelligently composed and executed with polished skill.” At the beginning of his career in the early 1980s, Tapley was a printmaker and abstractionist working with bold colors and textures. Gradually, he returned to the direct observation that made his first experiences in art exciting. A desire to describe his own surroundings led him to paint the landscape, making modern realist images that won wide praise in a series of exhibitions at Linda Schwartz Gallery. In the mid-90’s, the artist changed his focus again, creating the energetic still-life images for which he is now known.... (https://www.centre.edu/directory/name/sheldon-tapley/) "Each still life I build is an odd mixture of careful structure and shoddy improvisation. My pleasure in geometric harmony is counterbalanced by the unpredictability of living things. Despite the effort that goes into constructing the arrangement, the pictures are rarely faithful to the original model. I often alter or invent things as the painting progresses. Nature, as well as my own..." https://www.ket.org/painting/tapley.htm undefined

More on Google