Kaysha Siemens is an award-winning artist currently specializing in oil painting and graphite, with a recent delve into the world of egg tempera. Originally hailing from Canada, she spent much of her young life traveling the Provinces and United States with her family, as they relocated for her father's work a number of times. From these changing vistas, she gained a deep love for the wide open expanse of the world, and the natural beauty it holds in all its varieties. Whether it be the overcast tide pools of the Pacific coast, or the lush greenery of the Appalachian mountains where she has resided since 2002, the natural world inspires and sustains her. She pays homage to this love in all of her work, whether it be the delicate shapes of leaves and branches, or the beautiful play of natural light over skin, with a particularly intellectual approach and a mind for research and detail. Attendant but not subservient to her love for the outer world is Kaysha's love for the inner world of story. An avid reader since early childhood, her mind is peopled with the tales and figures of myth and legend, and she brings elements of these into fusion with her close observation of nature. She uses them to convey a sense of narrative in her work, drawing attention to moments of folklore, mythology, and literature that may otherwise go overlooked, and imbuing her paintings and drawings with meaning and mystery.Kaysha is a regular on Every Day Original and a member of the Portrait Society of America and Oil Painters of America. Most recently, one of her paintings was selected as a Traditional Art Finalist in the 2023 Beautiful Bizarre Art Prize. She has been a Finalist and Semi-finalist in the Art Renewal Center’s Annual International Salon 2019 and 2022. This prestigious organization receives thousands of entries each year from over 70 countries. She has studied with notable artists such as Brad Kunkle, Julio Reyes, and Patricia McMahon Rice, honing her skills alongside her own distinctive voice and vision. Kaysha's desire to make art goes back as far as her earliest memories, and she has been making a living from her art since before she finished school. After a brief foray into experimentation with digital mediums and watercolor, she returned to her true passion of oil painting. From her home in Swannanoa, just outside of Asheville, North Carolina she puts her knowledge and appreciation of nature to practical application by tending to lush gardens on her property. She travels a number of times a year to share her work with collectors, and also encourages the travel of others through the region by opening her home to friends and colleagues when they visit, acting as tour guide and host so that others may experience the beauty of the mountains as she does.