The Art of Shawna Apps
You’re never going to believe it…but this piece? It actually DID WHAT I WANTED IT TO. I’ve had so many recently that went their own way, so to have one do what I wanted?
It felt really, really weird.
I’ve had a couple questions about where this piece is from, and I love that even though it’s from Corolla, Outer Banks in North Carolina, that it reminds my viewers of their favorite bodies of water!
Title: Tranquility
Continue reading “New Piece: Tranquility”Ever since my daughter was little, my husband and I had a feeling she would choose a college major/career path leaning towards the arts or something very creative.
Now that she’s a senior in high school (who let that happen??!??!), college applications are in, the deposit was sent to her #1 school, and her double major has been chosen, our initial guesses were right: she’s creative!
Continue reading “She’s Creative!”This piece was a rollercoaster ride to create!
I started out with this being an 18″ x 24″ piece, and some times it went well, others…not so much. Paint was running everywhere, the paper was warping from the water, colors were blending beautifully…like I said, a rollercoaster ride with its ups and downs!
It wasn’t until I was so close to being finished and getting ready to frame it that the unthinkable happened….
A question I get often is do I use reference images for all of my pieces or can I just draw/paint them by memory. My answer is always this: I have to use reference images!
That statement is no longer true because of this piece…
“Your work is too soft.”
“You need more contrast.”
“You know what would make this piece better? Differentiating between your lights and darks more.”
Those comments and so many other variations on them came from my professors and classmates in college, whether I asked for feedback or not. Critiques, working in class….I’d hear them all the time.
Continue reading ““Too Soft””Sometimes I’ll make a piece and be like, okay, this isn’t bad. Others I’ll be like, oh wow, I like this a lot!
This piece?
I’d keep it and stare at it all day every day if I had wall space left for it! I really think this might be the best piece I’ve ever done.
Title: Twilight
Continue reading “New Piece: Twilight”After a lot of thought and consideration, I have decided to no longer offer note cards in my shop.
I still have a few sets available in different designs, so if you want to get your hands on a set before they’re gone for good, shop quickly here!
I’ve mentioned before that there are times when pieces don’t go the way I intentionally planned…and this piece is no different!
This piece came together really easily. The color gradient, the clouds, it was so smooth and seamless…but it felt like it was missing something. I hadn’t planned for anything but the clouds to be in the painting, so I was feeling a little frustrated. I had the name Lullaby in my head, but that felt like it was missing something as well. I happened to be talking to my husband about something and it inspired me to try putting a moon into the piece, and it was perfect! The alliteration for using ‘lunar’ in the title with lullaby was the sprinkles on top (because sprinkles are better than cherries!).
Continue reading “New Piece: Lunar Lullaby”Can I just say how good it is to be back doing festivals again?!??
Okay, so I was severely out of practice preparing for the festival. I couldn’t find my packing list so I couldn’t remember everything I needed to bring, things had to be deep cleaned, and set up took forever because I’m so out of routine. Granted, it’s been three years since I had done a festival so I should cut myself some slack, but it. was. hard.
The New:
Continue reading “Brockport Arts Festival 2022”I went through a period of time this past winter where every watercolor piece I created looked great on my reference image, but as soon as I got it onto the paper, the composition was awkward. This piece originally had another set of clouds along the left, but I felt like it just looked better cropped, so I trimmed it down and went with the smaller, better composed piece!
Title: Sherbet Skies
Continue reading “New Piece: Sherbet Skies”
Back to the Drawing Board 