The Art of Shawna Apps
If you’ve been around for awhile, you know I love watercolors.
You might also know that I love drawing with graphite pencils.
I’ve been after a way to combine the two loves into one cohesive piece lately, but no matter what I’ve tried, it never looks…right.
Well, I decided to reorganize and redecorate my office, and guess what I found buried in a spot that never should have held this particular item?
WATER. SOLUBLE. GRAPHITE. PENCILS.
Continue reading “New Mediums”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”Confession time!
Sketchbooks? Not my thing.
As an artist, that feels weird to say. I feel like sketchbooks are a must have for us, but I have never really cared for them. I don’t know if it’s because I just want to create finished pieces or I just am afraid to create something beautiful just for it to be stuck in a book forever, but sketchbooks? I’ll happily pass on them.
Continue reading “Artist Confession”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”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….
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”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”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”
Back to the Drawing Board 