Sheila Isham (born 1927) travelled extensively throughout her life, studying art movements across the globe and immersing herself in local art scenes, primarily in Asia and Europe. The artist's abstractions draw on a wide range of influences from twentieth-century European avant-garde approaches to Washington Color School techniques; from ancient Chinese calligraphy, philosophy, and poetry, to Haitian animism and modes of Hindu and Buddhist tantric practices. Known primarily for her colour field paintings, Isham's work is in the collections of the Hirshhorn Museum in Washington, DC; the Museum of Modern Art in New York; the Minneapolis Institute of Art; and the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC, among others.