Shishkov, Wally

Wally Shishkov is a painter born in Montreal, Quebec who now divides his time painting in Nova Scotia and Newfoundland. He explored the mysterious world of painting since his early twenties when it was a necessary release from the pressures of medical school.

While practising medicine Shishkov studied the craft, painted, and sold his work in Ontario. In 2004, at age 47, he left medicine to return to his home in Bear River to paint. He currently exhibits in Halifax and St. John’s. Shishkov paints plein air landscapes and abstracts in oil. Both approaches inform and transform each other. Having never put down roots in any city he's lived in, Shishkov now considers rural Nova Scotia and rural Newfoundland equally as home, the more so for having built a freestanding studio in Amherst Cove, Newfoundland in 2025

Artist Statement

I love the act of painting. 

 My best paintings come from a struggle and end with the feeling that I did not paint them but that I became the instrument for something greater than myself.  Whether it is a plein air landscape or an abstract, getting to work with paint is the only thing that matters.  Then, each painting develops a life of its own and comes alive on its own terms.

 In this process, landscapes become abstracts and abstracts become landscapes, where colours define forms and shapes.  For me, this enables a reconnection with the mystery of the world.