Sharon Offord trained as a high school English teacher. However, she had always enjoyed drawing and handcrafts. She took a correspondence art course but got cold feet when it came to the painting section. Later, when her youngest child left home, she coped with the empty nest syndrome by attending a fabric painting class. When these lessons ended, she tried mosaics but decided that she would prefer to paint. Advised that “if you want to take painting seriously you must use oils”, she began her journey into oil painting. She found this satisfying because it is very forgiving and she could work and rework a painting until she was happy with it. As a self confessed “turquoise addict” it was natural for her to choose seascapes as her main focus. She loves the natural beauty of the Cape Peninsula and was very happy to settle in Cape Town in 2022.