In her Park City studio, artist Shel Pink finds balance between movement and stillness

Artist Shel Pink in her Park City Studio. Photo: TownLift//Randi Sidman-Moore

PARK CITY, Utah – On a cold Park City morning, Shel Pink moves easily through her light-filled studio, surrounded by canvases that stretch nearly wall to wall. Some lean unfinished against the floor. Others — large, colorful and layered — hang nearby, their surfaces dense with gesture, texture and movement.

Pink doesn’t mind the chill. She grew up in Michigan, where winter meant sledding, snow forts and long days outside, before spending three decades in Los Angeles. Snow, she said, still feels like home — especially when it’s paired with the warmth of a fire and a cup of tea afterward.

That balance between contrast and comfort echoes through her work.

Pink studied art history at the University of Michigan, drawn especially to Japanese art and architecture, as well as modern and abstract movements. After graduating, her creative path took many forms. She worked extensively with color photography, then spent years developing color palettes for a beauty care brand she founded, collaborating closely with chemists on formulations, textures and hues.

“Color was always there,” Pink said. “No matter what I was doing.”

Painting, too, was a constant — though often intermittent — as she raised a family and navigated career shifts. That changed in 2019, when a major life transition pulled her fully back to the canvas. She began painting again and hasn’t stopped since.

The renewed focus resulted in a series of large-scale works now filling her Park City studio, including The Density of Delight, a collection of abstract expressionist paintings that explore what Pink describes as the tension between grounding and lightness.

“Delight feels ethereal,” she said. “Density feels deep and rooted. I like holding both at the same time.”

The series includes works up to 17 feet long, created with acrylic, oil, oil pastel, watercolor, charcoal, pencil and ink — sometimes all on a single canvas. Pink works physically, often moving her entire body as she paints, listening to music ranging from jazz to blues. Recently, the soundtrack from Spike Lee’s Mo’ Better Blues has been a steady companion in the studio.

Her influences are wide-ranging. Pink cites artists like Joan Mitchell and Cy Twombly, alongside the mark-making traditions of Japanese scroll painting. The influence is subtle but present: black ink gestures, a sense of rhythm, and an underlying calm that contrasts with the energetic movement of her brushstrokes.

“There’s a ritual and intentionality in Japanese art and architecture that really stayed with me,” she said. “I’m always trying to balance stillness and motion.”

That balance is also visible in Pink’s newer, still-unnamed series, which leans toward more open space and restraint. Where The Density of Delight builds layers through repeated painting and erasure, the newer works intentionally leave room to breathe. White oil and pastel emerge more prominently, creating lightness amid the color.

One piece incorporates handwritten text inspired by a fortune Pink received during a recent trip to Japan. She wrote the fortune directly onto the canvas, then layered over it repeatedly, a practice she’s carried with her since childhood.

“I write, rewrite, and overwrite until it becomes almost illegible,” she said. “It’s about memory — what stays visible and what fades.”

Pink’s earlier series, Her Abandonment, remains installed in her home and is not for sale. The title reflects a recurring emotional theme she works through privately while painting. By contrast, several pieces from The Density of Delight have already sold, bound for collectors in Los Angeles.

For now, Pink keeps her focus local and personal. Her studio is open by appointment, and most days are spent painting, building inventory and listening closely — to music, to memory, and to the quiet dialogue between color and form.

“I want people to experience the work however they experience it,” she said. “There’s a lot of energy there, but also a meditative quality. Both can exist at once.”

In Pink’s studio, they do.