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 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”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.
One of my favorite places to be is always the ocean. I love watching and listening to the waves and watching the clouds roll by, but there is something magical about the sunset over the water. The way the sky changes colors, the clouds darken, and night starts to take over…it makes me feel at peace and so, so happy.
Which means, you guessed it, I was inspired to make a painting of it!
Title: Sunset Memory
Every year, we go on a week long vacation with my husband’s family during the summer. We’ve gone to a couple different lakes fairly close to home in the past, but this year we decided to do something different: we went to the Outer Banks in North Carolina during Easter/Spring break!
The week away came at the perfect time; we all live in western New York, and this winter was loooooong. Getting a break from the snow and frigid cold was wonderful, and it’s always nice to just get away from home and work.
However, my work followed me on vacation, but in a very good way…
For starters, I’m 31, and had never seen the ocean before this. Let me just say this: It. Is. Amazing.
All the color variations in the water, the bright colors of the sky, and all the cloud formations? It got my brain a twirlin’ coming up with all these new paintings I want to do, either in oil or watercolors.
One of my friends lived in North Carolina (actually, her dad is RV, the author I’m working with!), and she requested/mentioned that I should take pictures of all five of the lighthouses along the Outer Banks and make note cards and/or paintings/prints out of them. We only managed to get to three of them (Bodie, Hatteras and Ocracoke), but we’ll just have to make a trip back for the other two 🙂
As we were already in North Carolina and just a few short hours away, we left the beach house a day early and went to visit RV and his wife Jennie. After putting our kids to bed, we got to meet in person and discuss The Adventures of Boathouse Mouse series and look over illustrations in person while having coffee and cookies. It was so much fun spending time with them, and honestly, so hard to leave the following morning.
This is only a small fraction of pictures we took during our week away; I have over 1,800 pictures to go through. I’m not sure when I’ll have time to get painting, but I’m so anxious to get into my studio and work!
Which subject are you more excited about, the lighthouses or the clouds? Let me know below!
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