MUNTHE ART MONDAY:
SOFIE SHAMEL

Please introduce yourself and tell us about what you do.

I’m Sofie Shamel, a Danish American artist living on the coast near Lisbon.

I make abstract paintings on linen using acrylic, dye, oil and pastel. My work often begins with walks through the dunes at Guincho, where I notice the sea, coastal plants and changes in light. I paint these places later, when their details have started to soften in my memory.

Through layered surfaces, organic forms emerge and shift between abstraction and something recognisable. I’m interested in how an encounter with nature can stay with us emotionally, long after we’ve left a place.

Sofie is wearing our OBEY PANTS.

Sofie is wearing our VICHOLA OUTERWEAR.

What would you like people to notice in your artwork?

I’d love people to spend a little time with the paintings and notice how they change as they look. A mark might suggest a petal, a horizon or a patch of light, then become something else. I hope the work offers a moment of contemplation and leaves room for their own memories and associations to the landscape. Perhaps it will remind them of a place they can’t quite name, but still remember how it felt to be there.

What has been the most challenging aspect of being a woman in the arts?

For me, right now, it’s making space for my work while raising my children and running a business. I might be completely absorbed in a painting, then move into the routines and needs of family life, and later find myself answering emails or planning what comes next.

Shifting between those roles can be difficult, especially when I want to give each one my full attention. But motherhood is also teaching me to move between routine, ritual and creative flow, and to be more present with the time I do have. I’m learning to trust that a painting can wait for me, and that I can return to it with something new.

Can you name some other female artists who inspire you and explain why?

Georgia O’Keeffe has long inspired me. Her paintings make me want to slow down and give the natural world my full attention, which is something I’m trying to do in my own life and work.

Among contemporary artists, Kate Turpin stands out to me. I’m drawn to the way her paintings hover between something recognisable and something dreamlike.

Beyond particular artists, I admire women who keep showing up for their practice and make a life around their work.

Could you explain more about how being a woman has affected your career?

I’ve grown more comfortable trusting intuition and emotion. I see those as strengths in my practice. I’m drawn to softness, but I also love challenging this with stronger marks and contrast . That tension feels familiar to me as a woman today. There is room to be gentle and determined, receptive and ambitious, sometimes all at once. I think those different energies live in my paintings too.

Sofie is wearing our OBEY PANTS and VICHOLA OUTERWEAR.