The Art of Shawna Apps
I was inspired to create this piece in February, but it took me a full month and a half to even attempt to try painting it! I tend to get in my head when I see things that inspire me to paint, telling myself it’s too hard, I’m not good enough to even try it, and I’ll waste my time and materials by even attempting it. I’m getting better about it, but it’s still a voice in my head that needs major work to silence it!
Title: Soar
Continue reading “New Piece: Soar”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”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”We live in a beautiful part of Western New York where the views are amazing. I love driving down back roads, especially for sunrises and sunsets, and just take in the view. This painting was based on a late autumn morning, and I was taken aback at how the bright blue sky and purple and white fluffy clouds were so vibrant when paired with the bare, dark trees and chopped down cornfields. I of course had to take a picture and paint it!
Title: Autumn Farewell
Continue reading “New Piece: Autumn Farewell”You know I’m obsessed with clouds, right?
Actually, anything sky related makes my heart sing: sunbeams poking through the clouds, the way the colors swirl and change for sunrises and sunsets, the clear, bright blue skies…it is my happy place!
One evening I was taking my oldest son to school for a practice, and as we got to the end of the road, this beautiful sunset was just beginning to fade and stars were just starting to appear. He looked at me and said “Mom, you need to paint this.” He took a picture of it quickly before we finished heading to school, and this piece was born not too long afterwards.
I love spring mornings.
You know the ones: when the sun finally feels warm, there is a slight breeze, the sky bright blue and the leaves starting to bud on the trees. It feels amazing to the senses and the soul after a long winter!
One one of these mornings as I was keeping an eye on kiddos waiting to board the bus to school, there were fluffy pink clouds in the sky that reminded us of cotton candy, and so this piece was inspired!
Title: Cotton Candy Skies
Continue reading “New Piece: Cotton Candy Skies”Why is it that clouds are at their most beautiful right before storms roll in? The contrast between the dark and the light, the shapes…it is stunning.
Title: Calm Before the Storm
Continue reading “New Piece: Calm Before the Storm”A couple weeks ago we were on our way home from church and along our journey I saw this beautiful sky. There were big, fluffy white and purple clouds along the horizon, the blue of the sky played so well with the colors of the bare trees and farm field, and there was one, lonely cloud up high in the sky. I knew I had to paint it, so I took a picture really quick and put it on the back burner for later.
Later came really quickly as I was able to get started on the piece a few days later, and it was turning out BEAUTIFULLY. The clouds were staying white where I wanted them to, the purple was making them look fluffy, it was just going exactly the way I wanted it to, if not better.
I finished the painting in record time, and I was ECSTATIC. I waited for it to dry, and then plopped it into a mat for framing….and then it all went downhill really, really quickly.
Continue reading “Happy Accidents”This summer we took our annual Apps family vacation to Virginia and stayed on a river. This was a big change for us as we typically go to the ocean or maybe a lake, but a river? Definitely new.
It was such an amazing vacation, though. We watched herons, we kayaked and swam, and even saw dolphins on our last full day there.
The weather was absolutely beautiful, but we did have one day of rain. The way the clouds rolled over the river were absolutely stunning, and inspired this piece:
Continue reading “New Piece Alert: Serenity Bay”Three weeks completed. Only four more days to go.
Is it just me, or has this challenge gone by really fast?
It was a good drawing day. My appointments were all cancelled, so I was able to take my time and just draw. It was very weird…but I really enjoyed just being able to not have to rush!
Title: Sunshine Through the Clouds
Medium: Graphite pencil on acid free paper
Size: 5×7
Back to the Drawing Board 