Let's Chill abstract painting by Shirley Bales
SHIRLEY BALES FINE ART

Complex harmony.

Color, memory, material, and a life spent making.

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ABOUT THE WORK

There is beauty in the struggle.

My paintings hold traces of what came before: a buried line, an exposed edge, a color that changes everything around it.

I call this complex harmony—quiet beside intensity, structure interrupted by accident. The work feels whole without making every part the same.

We take shape this way too.

Plumb Done abstract painting by Shirley Bales
THE COLLECTION

Fine Art Canvas Editions

Printed to order in my Colorado studio from my original paintings, with close attention to color and detail. Ships rolled and unstretched.

Flying By Blue square crop shown stretched in a light interior for presentation and scale.
Flying By Blue square crop shown stretched in a light interior for presentation and scale.
Flying By Blue abstract painting by Shirley Bales in layered blue, teal, cream, coral, ochre, and dark gestural marks.
Flying By — Blue — Fine Art Canvas Edition by Shirley Bales
from $165.00 USD
USD
from $165.00 USD
USD
Plumb Done — Fine Art Canvas Edition by Shirley Bales
Plumb Done — Fine Art Canvas Edition by Shirley Bales
Plumb Done — Fine Art Canvas Edition by Shirley Bales
Plumb Done — Fine Art Canvas Edition by Shirley Bales
from $165.00 USD
USD
from $165.00 USD
USD
Let’s Chill — Fine Art Canvas Edition by Shirley Bales
Let’s Chill — Fine Art Canvas Edition by Shirley Bales
Let’s Chill — Fine Art Canvas Edition by Shirley Bales
Let’s Chill — Fine Art Canvas Edition by Shirley Bales
from $185.00 USD
USD
from $185.00 USD
USD
Flying By — Yellow shown stretched above a wood console for presentation; the canvas edition ships rolled and unstretched.
Flying By — Yellow shown stretched above a wood console for presentation; the canvas edition ships rolled and unstretched.
Flying By — Yellow shown stretched above a wood console for presentation; the canvas edition ships rolled and unstretched.
Flying By — Yellow — Fine Art Canvas Edition by Shirley Bales
from $185.00 USD
USD
from $185.00 USD
USD
SMALL STATEMENTS

A little space for art.

Details from my paintings, gathered into coordinated duos and trios. Printed on Breathing Color velvet matte paper with 6-ply mats. Frames are not included.

Let’s Chill square duo: two small unframed matted prints in an illustrative shelf display. Each artwork 5 × 5 inches in a 10 × 10 inch mat.
Let’s Chill square duo: two small unframed matted prints in an illustrative shelf display. Each artwork 5 × 5 inches in a 10 × 10 inch mat.
Let’s Chill square duo: two small unframed matted prints in an illustrative shelf display. Each artwork 5 × 5 inches in a 10 × 10 inch mat.
Let’s Chill — Square Matted Print Duo
$38.00 USD
USD
$38.00 USD
USD
Flying By Blue vertical trio by Shirley Bales, showing all three matted prints in illustrative frames. Set of three prints and mats; frames and accessories not included. Scene is not an exact size or mat-color guide.
Flying By Blue vertical trio by Shirley Bales, showing all three matted prints in illustrative frames. Set of three prints and mats; frames and accessories not included. Scene is not an exact size or mat-color guide.
Flying By Blue vertical trio by Shirley Bales, showing all three matted prints in illustrative frames. Set of three prints and mats; frames and accessories not included. Scene is not an exact size or mat-color guide.
Flying By — Blue — Vertical Matted Print Trio
$54.00 USD
USD
$54.00 USD
USD
Flying By Blue square trio by Shirley Bales, showing all three matted prints in illustrative frames. Set of three prints and mats; frames and accessories not included. Scene is not an exact size or mat-color guide.
Flying By Blue square trio by Shirley Bales, showing all three matted prints in illustrative frames. Set of three prints and mats; frames and accessories not included. Scene is not an exact size or mat-color guide.
Flying By Blue square trio by Shirley Bales, showing all three matted prints in illustrative frames. Set of three prints and mats; frames and accessories not included. Scene is not an exact size or mat-color guide.
Flying By — Blue — Square Matted Print Trio
$54.00 USD
USD
$54.00 USD
USD
Let’s Chill vertical duo: two small unframed matted prints in an illustrative shelf display. Each artwork 4 × 6 inches in an 11 × 14 inch mat.
Let’s Chill vertical duo: two small unframed matted prints in an illustrative shelf display. Each artwork 4 × 6 inches in an 11 × 14 inch mat.
Let’s Chill vertical duo: two small unframed matted prints in an illustrative shelf display. Each artwork 4 × 6 inches in an 11 × 14 inch mat.
Let’s Chill — Vertical Matted Print Duo
$38.00 USD
USD
$38.00 USD
USD
ARTIST + MAKER

One curiosity. Many forms.

Painting, jewelry, objects, and material experiments have always shared my worktable. Color and surface lead me from one to the next.

The medium changes; the curiosity stays. I follow an idea until it asks to become something else.

Shirley Bales in a gallery and studio setting
FOUNDER · ECO FORMA CLAY CO.

The material became part of the practice.

I founded Eco Forma Clay Co. to develop the materials I wanted to work with: air cure clay and a connected system for color, surface, and finish.

It grew from the same experimentation as my paintings, with more room for other artists and makers to explore.

Explore Eco Forma
MADE WITH ECO FORMA

Jewelry gallery

Small sculptural pieces in layered mineral color. Explore Stone Form and Rough Cut jewelry made with Eco Forma clay.

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Stone Form Clay Long Wire Earrings, Charcoal, Tan and Cream, complete pair on the photographed fabric or surface.
Stone Form · Charcoal, tan & cream
Stone Form Clay Hoop Earrings, Aqua, Cream and Gray, complete pair on its display card.
Stone Form · Aqua, cream & gray
Stone Form Clay Long Wire Earrings, Blush, Cream and Mauve, complete pair on its display card.
Stone Form · Blush, cream & mauve
Rough Cut Clay Long Wire Earrings, Rust, Cream and Brown, complete pair on its display card.
Rough Cut · Rust, cream & brown
A LIFE IN COLOR

Learning to see.

Painting outdoors taught me to look beyond the names of things. A shadow holds color. An edge disappears. The light changes before the painting does.

Abstraction draws on that same attention, without needing to describe a place.

One taught me to see. The other taught me to listen.

Plein air easel and landscape painting beside a mountain lake in Rocky Mountain National Park
Dream Lake, Rocky Mountain National Park.
Oil paint palette and landscape painting showing Shirley Bales's plein air color mixtures
A plein-air palette and color study.
THE PROCESS

Build. Disrupt. Rebuild.

I layer paint, wax, paper, pigment, and drawing, then respond to what happens. A passage is covered. An edge returns. A small mark changes the balance.

Knowing my materials gives me more freedom to work intuitively—and to recognize the accident worth keeping.

Flying By abstract painting by Shirley Bales
Flying By.
Flying By Blue square composition 1, one of three artwork details included in the square matted print trio.
Flying By — Blue, detail.
Plumb Done shown stretched on a pale wall above a wood ledge for presentation; canvas ships rolled and unstretched.
WHY I MAKE ART

Live with art.

A painting carries something of my experience, then meets yours.

It becomes part of ordinary mornings, changing light, and the memory of a home. What you notice in it may be something I never planned.

There is beauty in what we choose to keep.

STUDIO-PRINTED EDITIONS

From original work to canvas.

I print each edition to order in my Colorado studio, then inspect the color and detail.

The selected size is the finished size after stretching; extra printed canvas is included around the image.

Shown stretched for presentation. Your edition ships rolled and unstretched.

Let’s Chill in a second angled wall presentation; frame, stretcher bars, and hanging hardware are not included.

Collector questions

Editions, sizing, framing, and shipping.

From the studio

Notes on painting, color, observation, and materials.

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What I Mean by Complex Harmony

What I Mean by Complex Harmony

A painting can hold together without smoothing away its differences. What complex harmony means in my work.
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What Remains in the Layers

What Remains in the Layers

Covered marks, unexpected edges, and the traces that give a painting its history.
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Flying By — Yellow, an abstract fine art canvas by Shirley Bales, shown stretched above a wood console.

Looking, Outside and In

How plein-air observation becomes a visual vocabulary for abstraction in the studio.
Read more
Leaving Room for the Viewer

Leaving Room for the Viewer

There is no hidden answer to uncover before you can enjoy a painting. What you discover in the work is yours.
Read more
Close detail of Flying By — Blue by Shirley Bales, showing layered blue, cream, ochre, coral, and dark gestural passages.

Pigment Is More Than Color

Staining, settling, broken edges, and what survives drying: why I experiment with pigments, mediums, and surfaces.
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I aspire to make my life art.

To keep looking. To keep questioning. To make something beautiful from what remains—and to stay curious about what comes next.