Coshocton artist Shara Prindle finds joy in sharing her work at county fair

It’s fun to enter at the Coshocton County Fair, and you never know you may have a Best in Show. Shara Prindle enters her art in the fair every year.

"I started drawing when I was 4, and we went to The Salvation Army church,” she said. “My grandmother would give us paper and pencil to keep us quiet. I still do it, and that's how I started, by drawing in church, doodling.”

Prindle took art all through school.

“The first time I entered something, I thought, ‘Yeah, I think I could get a ribbon for this,’” she said. “I was 20 the first time I entered a pencil drawing, and I did get a ribbon for third place. Now I usually try to enter four to five pieces every year. There are so many categories.”

She paints mainly with acrylics now but also does pen and ink drawings, watercolors, some oil paintings and pencil drawings.

"I have always been interested in going through the art hall and thought I wanted to enter something there,” Prindle said. “The first time you get a ribbon, it's like, ‘Oh, I think I would like to do this again.’” So I've just done it every year."

She had been doing it a long time before she got a Best of Show. "It was like, ‘Yay, finally,’" Prindle said.

Prindle always donates the ribbons and prize money back to the fair to support the art hall, and she plans to sponsor the art hall through her business for the next three years.

"I was so impressed with the art hall last year,” she said. “It was just full of paintings."

Her family members are all creative, she said.

"Mom raised us in a way to express ourselves through our art,” Prindle said. “I'm the only one that paints, but my brother paints cars. I have three grandsons, and they all like to draw, so when we go to church, I give them paper and pencil and it works."

This year she is entering an acrylic landscape and a watercolor at the fair.

“I love water, and I love painting scenes with water,” Prindle said. “You don't have to be gifted. People in my classes say, ‘I can't draw a straight line,’ and I say, ‘Well, I can teach you how to draw a crooked line.’ Everybody has a creative side that they can work from. It's just a matter of learning how to pull it out.

"I teach step by step. This time we are doing a series called Seasons of Life, spring, summer, fall and winter. I try to have an inspirational story that goes along with each painting. Sometimes it is God-given. I get a lot of ideas. Some of my ideas come from nature itself.”