SHEILA Pringle started painting before most children learn to read. Says the Charleston-based artist: “I started at 3. When I was 5, my mother took me to the Corcoran School of Arts and lied about my age. I studied there until I was 15.”

Decades later, Pringle continues to practice her craft, though her path has not been without obstacles. After studying and working as a landscape architect, Pringle started a family. A few years later doctors discovered a brain tumor in her frontal lobe. During her recovery, Pringle returned to her passion. “The first day they gave me medicine I started painting,” she says.

Pringle soon joined Perspective Gallery in Mount Pleasant, where she shows her mainly figurative artwork. Her work can be seen at Talking Trees Gallery.

“I enjoy painting people. I paint them as I find them. … It’s life in South Carolina,” she says.