“I have no color on the brain; all I have on the brain is paint.”  — Robert S. Duncanson

Landscape Artist Sharon Sorrels

Sharon Sorrels built careers in the arts and education in Washington, DC before relocating to the Myrtle Beach area. She earned a BFA in Design with minors in Art History and Education from Howard University and worked at the National Gallery of Art and the National Endowment for the Arts before completing a master’s degree in library science and serving as a School Library Media Specialist with DC Public Schools.

Sorrels is an active member of the local arts community and serves on the board of the Waccamaw Arts and Crafts Guild. She is also a member of the Seacoast Artists Guild and the Colored Pencil Society of America. Her paintings and drawings are exhibited at regional galleries, including Seacoast Artists Gallery at The Market Common and Gallery 320 in Myrtle Beach, and are held in private collections. Her work has been featured in juried exhibitions and commissions and has received multiple awards. 

Notable Black Landscape painters

Robert S. Duncanson (1821–1872): The first internationally recognized African American landscape painter, associated with the Hudson River School, known for poetic, symbolic, and sometimes abolitionist landscapes, like Land of the Lotus Eaters.

Edward Mitchell Bannister (1828–1901): A Barbizon School painter and abolitionist, gaining national recognition at the 1876 Centennial Exhibition.

Henry Ossawa Tanner (1859–1937): Though famous for religious works, he was a skilled landscape and genre painter, often working in France.