Elizabeth Sheats’ journey from interior design to Azalea Festival artist is shaped by loss, hope, and Wilmington’s live oaks
Elizabeth Sheats grew up in Wilmington looking forward to the North Carolina Azalea Festival each spring. She watched the parade, wandered the street fair and, years later, stood among the Azalea Belles as a high school student. In 2026, she returns to the festival in a new role — one that feels both full circle and deeply personal — as the event’s commissioned artist.
Wilmington is not just where she works; it’s where her roots run deep. She grew up beneath its live oaks, walked its streets as a child anticipating festival weekends, and once served as an Azalea Belle herself. To now give back to the festival through her art, she says, feels humbling and meaningful.
Sheats comes from a creative family on her mother’s side. She credits an aunt, an art teacher in Nashville, Tennessee, with instilling in her a love for the arts. As a student, she gravitated toward art classes and stayed late after school to prepare for local competitions. She studied art in college, even though — like many young artists — she wasn’t entirely sure where it would lead.
After graduation, Sheats spent a decade working in interior design, a field that sharpened her technical skills and eye for color. She became particularly known for her renderings, a precision skill that later evolved into a niche she still enjoys today: detailed home portrait commissions. Those years weren’t a detour, she says, but a foundation — training her to see proportion, color, and light in ways that now inform her fine art…