Northwind Art’s Jeanette Best Gallery is set to showcase “Sifting the Silence: Painting and Printmaking by Shirley Scheier” from Thursday, July 4, through Sunday, Aug. 18.

Although the show collects works from across more than two decades from the Port Townsend-based artist, Scheier noted that “Sifting the Silence” focuses primarily on her work over the past four years, plus a small selection of her intaglio monotypes from 2002-2009.

Among older etchings and prints such as “Hymnal,” “Avian Stream” and “Listening,” Scheier has produced more recent paintings, such as “Untethered Breeze,” “Sun Shawl” and “Sway,” by soaking nets in colorful paint, and casting them over paper or canvas surfaces to create her images.

Scheier uses nets to physically apply paint and to serve as a metaphor for collecting what she needs in her artwork, and allowing the rest to pass through.

Northwind is including Scheier’s earlier monotype work alongside her more recent paintings to reflect her shift from more narratively guided works to more abstract imagery.

“It’s exciting to see my works in such a great space, and it’s nice that they’re providing the context of my history as an artist,” Scheier said. “I’ve learned how to allow my stories to be more open to interpretation.”

Although Scheier didn’t come from an artistic background as a child, years of painting quietly with watercolors, plus moving to an area whose schools supported artistic inclinations, seeded fertile ground for her to discover an education in the arts in college.

Scheier now holds degrees from the University of Kansas and the University of Wisconsin at Madison. She said the artists of the Surrealist movement have served as a significant influence on her work along with the steady presence of nature.

Scheier cited her experiences in the Salish Sea, the Pacific Northwest’s forests and mountains, and her vegetable and flower gardens, with her time on the water providing her with perhaps one of the most influential moments she’s had.

“My husband, who was in the Coast Guard, taught me to sail during the early 2000s, so we spent weeks and even months on the water,” Scheier said. “We were in Desolation Sound, and I was struck by being surrounded by this enormous expanse of water. I saw the clouds in the distant mountains, and I recognized the cycle of it all, so I needed to express my awe at its sheer magnitude.”

Rather than working through “small windows, as I’d been doing” with her monotypes, Scheier wanted to capture “the hugeness of that expanse,” as it “entered my heart and filled me” with feelings she still seeks to translate into abstract visuals.

To that end, Scheier sees her paint-soaked nets as a metaphor for collecting the “food” of spiritual sustenance for her soul.

Scheier’s awards have included a MacDowell fellowship, and her work has been exhibited in Seattle, Tacoma and Portland art museums, as well as the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City, Missouri.

Scheier has been an artist-in-residence at MacDowell Colony in New Hampshire, the University of Oregon in Eugene, and the Peacock Printmakers Workshop in Aberdeen, Scotland. From 1986-2016 she taught at the University of Washington in Seattle.

When asked what she hopes her art will give people, Scheier says simply, “joy.”

Martha Worthley, a Port Townsend artist and Northwind Art’s executive director, described Scheier’s work as “thoughtful and beautifully crafted and evocative.” Meg Kaczyk, who’s slated to interview Scheier at Northwind’s July 18 gallery talk, opined that Scheier’s painting and printmaking evoke transcendentalists such as Georgia O’Keeffe and Agnes Pelton.

“I look forward to seeing them within the gallery experience, where I can just immerse myself and fall into these paintings,” said Kaczyk, who added that Scheier’s art has her own signature markings, “subtle and deep.”

Northwind Art’s Jeanette Best Gallery is open noon to 5 p.m., Thursdays through Mondays. The opening celebration for “Sifting the Silence” comes during the “First Saturday” Art Walk of July 6, from 5-8 p.m.

Scheier will give a free artist talk at 7 p.m. on Thursday, July 18, at the Jeanette Best Gallery at 701 Water St., in an interview format with time for audience questions.