Sabrina Stiles

Sabrina Stiles is a Colorado-based pastel artist with an expressive style. Originally from Michigan, Sabrina moved to Colorado decades ago, and lives in Longmont with her husband, Henry. Stiles was a biomedical electronics engineer, a coffee shop owner, and an aesthetician before a cancer diagnosis led her to follow her true passion as an artist.

Primarily a landscape artist, Stiles draws inspiration from cloudy days that allow for softer light and feminine expression. Of her work, the artist shares that each has its own story, its own struggle. “You go through something with every painting,” she says. Whether the scene finds the artist, or the artist finds the scene, she doesn’t know, but she is inspired by her travels and the landscape near her home in Longmont, Colorado. 

Her keen observation and reverence for the beauty that surrounds her is evident in her work. Stiles captures photographs she often doesn’t need for reference and prefers to work en plein air. She prefers to make her own surfaces: un-sanded board coated with oil paint, multi-media boards coated with gesso and pumice mixes, watercolor washes on paper, and more. Before discovering pastel, Stiles worked with oil and acrylic. Pastel has held her focus, though she oft-layers pastel over oil to take advantage of her favorite qualities of both mediums. Of her experimentation and career changes, she explains, “if you want to get anywhere, you have to be fearless.”

Sabrina Stiles has studied with many nationally recognized artists and has won awards in local, regional, and national competition. Her work has been included in prestigious juried shows and exhibitions, including Coors Western Art Exhibit & Sale (2017-2020), Plein Air Artists Colorado Exhibition (2015-2019), The Governors Art Show (2015-2017, 2019, 2020), Western Spirit Art Show (2013-2016), the Colorado Pastel Society Mile High International Exhibition (2011, 2014-2019), amongst others. Stiles’ work is included in private collections around the world and has received many awards and accolades, including Best Landscape in the 2017 Plein Air Salon, Best in Show at the 2016 Annual PAAC Exhibition, Elizabeth Mowry Poetic Landscape Award at the 2016 Mile High International Pastel Exhibition, Best Pastel in the  2015 Western Spirit Art Show and Sale, and many more. Stiles has been featured in American Art Collector, Southwest Art Magazine, The Artists Magazine, The Pastel Journal and North Light Books’ Art Journey Abstract Painting, a Celebration of Contemporary Art.