Sheila Benow-Clark

Sheila Benow-Clark. Artist, wife, mother, grandmother and all-around lover of life Sheila Sandra Benow-Clark began another journey on September 4, 2012, following a 12-year battle with breast cancer. A resident of Palm Desert for the last six years, Sheila often said that the happiest years of her life were those spent in the Coachella Valley surrounded by family, dear friends and the striking natural beauty of the desert community which continued to inspire her work as an artist, a profession she enjoyed and was successful at for over 50 years. Sheila is survived by her husband Gary Clark, daughters Melinda and Alisse, her first grandson Max and her beloved dog Sophie. After making an important international name for herself in Europe and Japan and living abroad for the past thirty years, the New York-born Sheila Benow returned to the United States full-time in 2006 and chose Palm Desert, California, as her new home. With an impressive list of solo exhibitions around the world including New York, Munich, Basel, Stockholm and Washington D.C. (where some of Benow's works are actually on display at the Smithsonian), Benow has also created Museum Editions for such prestigious institutions as the Albrecht Durer Gesellschaft in Nurnberg and Associated American Artists in New York. She has taught classes both in New York and overseas, the La Quinta California Community Center, and exhibited at both the Indian Wells Arts Festival and the Rancho Mirage Art Affaire for the past several years. Benow attended the Ethical Culture and Fieldston Schools in New York, Sarah Lawrence College and the Art Students League, and her work can be found in many private and public collections around the world. She has also designed and illustrated numerous covers for record albums and children's books. "I had always dreamed of living in California," said Benow several years ago, "and a community like Palm Desert that is so naturally beautiful and so artistic is wonderfully inspiring. I feel like I've really come home."