Artist Bio
Arena Shawn obtained a Ph.D. in Physics in 2008 from Purdue University as a science major. However, alongside science she has always had a passion for fine art. After coming to The United States for graduate school, she took the opportunity to attend many art classes and painting workshops around the country with nationally-renowned instructors. Eventually, her calling to art has led her to leave her engineering job in Silicon Valley, and begin a study of classical drawing and painting methods following the 19th-century French academic lineage in the Golden Gate Atelier in Oakland, CA. It was there that she studied traditional life drawing, painting, and sculpture, with great emphasis on in-depth study and classical techniques and the joy of working in a direct observational style in nature.
In her pursuit of art, Arena uses charcoal, pencil, brush and paints to reflect the quiet lights, subtle colors and playful shapes exhibited by seemingly mundane, everyday subjects. Striving for the emotional quality of every piece she creates, Arena hopes that her work would be able to reach out and connect with their viewers, evoking the sense of wonder and awe of our everyday life that are so often taken for granted. Her primary working method in drawing involves direct observation from life using traditional sight-size methods, and aims at achieving a strong impression of light and it’s cascading effect down the human figure or a particular still-life setup. At the same time she aims to create strong and unified value patterns, specific organic half-tone shapes, and incrementally softened edge quality from the center of focus outwards throughout the drawing.
Her still life arrangements are set up in her north facing studio and painted directly from life. She paints directly so that her relationship to the subject is heightened in the moment in order to pass on that perception and experience to the viewer, resulting in a painting that looks like a painting and not a photograph. Arena chooses objects and arrangements to create the most aesthetically beautiful design and a feeling of abundance and intimacy. These arrangements are influenced by centuries of traditional still life painting from the Dutch Masters of the 1600s, to French Academics of the 1900s. From there,
