Sheila Rieman’s interest in both art and animals has been unwavering from the time she could first hold a pencil. Born in Winona, Minnesota and raised in rural North Dakota, the lack of access to art instruction did not deter her commitment to becoming an artist. She developed a free-lance lettering business while still in high school, which later helped finance her studies in art and animal science at North Dakota State University in Fargo. She has also studied with Master Pastellist Albert Handel & Ned Jacob.
Rieman has been a full-time and widely exhibited artist over the past 25 years. In addition to the 1994 Tuffy Berg Award and 2002 Artist’s Choice at the C.M. Russell Art Auction, her work has received numerous top awards from pastel societies and other juried exhibitions across the nation, including the Pastel Society of America in New York City. She is a regular participant in the Quickdraw at the Buffalo Bill Art Auction in Cody, Wyoming and has been an invited artist several times as the Coors Western Art Exhibit and Sale in Denver. The Disney-sponsored Ryman Art Benefit in Los Angeles honored her as a featured artist in 1999. In 2004, she was one of 16 women invited to participate in Women of the Plains, an exhibition of regional female artists at North Dakota State University.
Rieman’s work has appeared in several publications including Equine Images (December 1993), The Pastel Journal (March 2000), Wildlife Art News (January 2003) and American Artist (Cover artist, May 2000). She was commissioned to create four of the annual event posters for the national horse exposition, Equine Affaire. Signature memberships include the Pastel Society of America and the Pastel Society of New Mexico. Her work hangs in hundreds of private and corporate collections here and abroad and is represented by galleries and art consultants across the United States. Rieman continues to live and work in North Dakota.