Sheldon Dawson Freelance Illustrator

Receiving the Vision/1998/acrylic on board/36″ x 24″

This First Nations girl is havesting corn kernels by rubbing the cobs against each other. Previous steps in the planting and harvesting process are illustrated below. From a set of educational sequence cards published by Native Reflections Inc.

Illustration from Do Unto Otters, written by Grant Anderson, published by Pemmican Publications.

Pemmican Publications and McNally Robinson Booksellers present the Book Launch of Kookum’s Red Shoes written by Peter Eyvindson and Illustrated by Sheldon Dawson.

May 12, 2012, 2:00 p.m. at McNally Robinson Booksellers, Winnipeg, Grant Park, in the Atrium.

Kookum’s Red Shoes is a moving and sensitive account of one woman’s Residential School experience. Kookum (grandmother) is now an elderly woman, but she remembers well how she was torn away from her family, her home and her dreams when she was a young girl.

The story is told with the empathy, clarity and encouragement readers have come to expect from Peter Eyvindson, and illustrated with warmth and verve by illustrator Sheldon Dawson.

1994/acrylic on canvas/18″ x 24″

Piece of the Sky CB14/2006/acrylic on board/14″x13″

Piece of the Sky RNH3/2006/acrylic on board/24″x24″

“Pieces of the Sky” is a series of 15 paintings about the fragmentary nature of our awareness and the unifying essence that lies beneath the surface of individual identity. These pieces combine recurring elements with unique details to reflect the dynamic balance between the opposing forces of cohesion and fragmentation.

The separate pieces in this series represent partial truths and partial awareness. Individual beliefs are depicted as fragments of a larger more inclusive truth and individual identities are portrayed as the infinitely varied and detailed disguises adopted by the fragments of a larger unified awareness.

While the costumes in these pieces disguise the essential similarity of the figures that wear them, I have portrayed the disguises as objects of beauty in their own right. Each painting in this series celebrates both the truth of unity and the beauty of multiplicity.

Two very vocal, squabbling Wood Ducks are featured in this illustration from Willy-The Curious Frog from Pruden’s Bog, written by Grant Anderson, published by Pemmican Publications.

Return of the Reptiles /2012 / Acrylic on canvasboard / 18″ x 24″

Illustration from Willy the Curious Frog from Pruden’s Bog, written by Grant Anderson, published by Pemmican Publications.

Piece of the Sky/ 2007 / acrylic on board / 16″ x 16″