Shiilegmaa (Shiimaa) was born in Khujirt sum (district) of Övörkhangai Aimag (Province) in southern Mongolia in 1982. She attended elementary school in Övörkhangai Aimag from 1990 to 2000. From 2001 to 2006 she studied at the Fine Art University in Ulaanbaatar to become a Painter. Shiimaa had enjoyed painting since she was a little child so becoming a professional painter was always her dream.
Shiimaa has three siblings, one older sister, a younger sister and a young brother. All four live in Ulaanbaatar, the capital of Mongolia, while their parents live in the country side. Her mother is an economist and her father is an automobile engineer. Both are retired now and enjoy to farm a piece of land in the country side. Shiimaa’s parents give her their support.
Together with four friends Shiimaa works in an art studio in Ulaanbaatar. For a living they do portraits and other commissioned work. But her real vocation is to create paintings of which most of are about people, life and preferably women. “Maybe this subject suits me best because I am female” Shiimaa explains her affection for painting girls, women and princesses. She tries to paint about the aim of life and joie de vivre. In her opinion it is important to live in conformance with one’s karma. She finds her inspiration in nature, wind and fog while travelling through the country side of Mongolia. When she paints, she likes to be alone, deep in her own thoughts.
Shiimaa loves her profession because it she feels happy when she paints. She could not think of doing something else. Her dream is to have her work shown in famous international galleries and to travel over the globe to get to know art and culture from all over the world.
In addition to painting, Shiimaa and her friends of the art studio do photography, performances, sculptures and video art which are shown on exhibitions from time to time.
Besides painting Shiimaa enjoys listening to music, visiting the country side, watching TV, playing computer games, meeting friends and singing, although she claims not to be a good singer. Her favorite musicians are Michael Bublé, John Legend, Shania Twain and she enjoys Mongolian National Music as well.