Happy New Year to all my friends!

It's New Years Eve and I am so excited about the upcoming year! Celebration of Fine Art is just around the corner!!! I will be taking 12-14 new watercolors that I am so proud of. It was so good to get back to my first love of painting. They take me back to that first crush, knowing what I wanted to do with the rest of my life! The frames are handmade, finished leafed corners - just beautiful. There will be about 18 oils displayed on opening night, all my blood sweat and tears from this past year - I can't wait! There is nothing like putting all your work together to see where you have come from, where you are at and where you want to go. A body of work is so telling of all your secrets - your passion, your pain and your aspirations! We all need a good look at ourselves every year and evaluate these things. Life is such an adventure and one that need not be on auto-pilot. Grab hold with both hands, hold on and try new journeys! Happy New Year!

Merry Christmas!

A quick note to wish all my dear friends Merry Christmas and an even better New Year! May you all find success, small and large, in your life this year, find love in beautiful hidden places and have peace and adventure in even amounts! A life well-rounded is a life well-lived and great friends make it even better! Enjoy :)

Shanna

A very sincere Thank You!

Thank you to all who weathered the storm and visited my show in Park City last night! I am truly grateful for those friends that take the time out of their busy schedule to support me. I have been so blessed in my life to have so many dear friends, such a supportive family and an artist network of peers - you make my life beautiful! I was thinking of all the past shows over the years, my entourage of "girls" that would be there or be square, all my family that has supported this crazy life of mine with so much love and optimism. This is a crazy business, one that the people who love me have watched like a roller coaster ride and still loved me in the end. I truly have sincere gratitude for all that have hung in there with me :)

Time for shopping!

My paintings for the Mtn. Trails Gallery are finally delivered and only now (as I say EVERY YEAR) can I get my Christmas shopping done! Oh how I wish I could be the person that has all the gifts bought in October! The person that has the paintings done and delivered a week ahead of schedule! Instead, every single year, I am in the stores on the week before Christmas playing catch-up. What would it be like to be an organized person? I might have everything ready for the Celebration of Fine Art show in Arizona. Instead I will be rushing like a madwoman on the fifth of January, making myself crazy with a list of things I forgot about. I will be painting right up until we leave. Is this all part of the right brain thing or just a Shanna thing? Well, at least one would think I would be used to it after all these years! Here's to a great shopping weekend :) !!

The Sun Came Out, Oil on Canvas, 30x40

Just ready for delivery to Mtn. Trails Gallery in Park City!

Mountain Trails Gallery in Park City - One person show!

Hello friends!

I'm working on the final piece for my One Person show in Park City at the Mountain Trails Gallery. I'm so excited about the show! The show was advertised in the Western Art Collector magazine in December's issue and the gallery has done a beautiful job of putting together a brochure of the new work. Please come up and see me if you are in town. The reception is Saturday, December 18th, from 6-9 pm.

I have many paintings home with me at the present, all getting ready to go out to new places, new shows! If you have a special someone in your life you would like to purchase a special something for - please call me for a list of paintings available for Christmas! Mention the blog and get a special purchase price.

I hope your holidays are beautiful!

Shanna

Fresh off the easel!

Here is the newest piece of hopefully quite a few to come! I guess I truly am ready for winter because the snow just keeps coming up for me. Let it snow!

I have my Christmas decorating finished! I did things a little easier this year and didn't use QUITE as many of my decorations and ornaments. I have 12 boxes of things that I have collected over the years and it was so hard deciding which things would go up. I think I am probably one of the most sentimental girls alive (not necessarily a great thing)! Some would call me a packrat. I have ornaments from my mom and dad's first christmas tree and even a couple from my grandma's tree. I have some that friends from high school gave me, and of course many that were given to my kids as they grew up. I only used the most special ones this year. I have about 32 nutcrackers that did not go up this year. The mantle and the dining room table and the tree, that's about it! We leave for Scottsdale the first of January and taking everything down is quite the chore!

My show for Mtn Trails in Park City is almost ready to deliver. A few more new pieces will be posted soon! I'm still working on the paintings for the Celebration and the Kneeland Gallery. Never a dull moment around this place!

Western Art Collector December 2010

Beginning to look alot like Christmas!

Boy is it coming down here - beautiful fluffy huge snowflakes! I love this kind of snow- a fresh blanket in the morning, no tracks just quite yet. I'm down in my studio with my stereo singing songs to me, my little space heater working overtime to warm up this room and lucy in her little dog bed next to my easel. I've been looking through the images I have taken this year and am visualizing what each piece will look like in a particular format. Maybe I'll try for three large pieces this week and I can't help it - WINTER pieces! That is never my galleries' favorite words, but it gets me so excited to paint these palettes, this texture, this SNOW! One more month to enjoy it and then down to Arizona for the best winter months of the year. I miss skiing, I miss driving in the snow (I know, must have lost my mind), watching the snow from my big picture window at home. Wow - someone gave me an extra dose of nostalgia in my coffee this morning! Here is a painting that was done from my favorite parts of two tiny little miniatures done with a tertiary palette, different value patterns, same subject matter. This large one, mainly because of the size difference, is much more subtle, very quiet and I am still living with it, deciding how much further to push it. It is of that beautiful lake North of Durango, CO that I have painted and worked through what seems to be a million times. Not sure I have said everything that needs to be said about it, even to this day. My color of choice these days has been a violet. Violets and blues! Hmmm. What will today bring?

Two new watercolors!

I am having such a great time with watercolor again! Here are a couple finished from yesterday and today! Quite the value if you are interested in Christmas gifts!

Me and Lucy

Lucy is my little studio dog! She is eight months old now, very much still a puppy. She would rather be outside chasing things than in by her mom.

Shan's Chili Recipe

It's been so cold around here that everyone should have a little chili! I did my research (as usual) and came up with a few recipes. Well, add a little of one and a little of another and then some of my own and this is what I came up with. If anyone tries it, let me know what you think!

HEARTY CHILI

1 can black beans

1 can kidney beans

1 can pinto beans

1-2 lbs. rib roast, cubed

6 slices bacon, cooked crisp, save grease

1 onion, chopped

1 green pepper, chopped

1 can diced green chilis

2 stalks celery

1 lg can crushed or diced tomatoes

1 8oz can tomato sauce

3-4 beef boullion cubes

1/2 tsp cumin

1 tbsp parsley

1 bay leaf

1 tbsp minced garlic

2 tsp cayenne pepper

1/2 tsp salt, pepper

1 c shredded jack or cheddar

sour cream

chopped cilantro

Brown meat, add all ingredients down to cheese. Let simmer all day.

When it's time to serve, dish into bowls and top with a bit of cheese, a

dollup of sour cream and top with a bit of cilantro.

Winter Schedule

It's going to be a busy winter/spring! I'm lining up all my shows and travels and it's going to be a whirlwind. First in line is the one-woman show at Mtn. Trails Gallery in Park City, Utah, then on to Scottsdale a few weeks later for the Celebration of Fine Art. February brings the Kneeland Gallery three-person show with Lori McNee and Cary Henrie. I love exhibiting with my dear friend Lori! March brings the Diane Stewart Invitational in Palm Springs and I am so pleased to be invited back to paint with the amazing artists that will be there. A week later I will be back in SLC to do the Hospice Charity Benefit show Art and Soup. Shows after March are still in the making.... Better get back to the easel!

New Work

A new 18x36 oil named "Evening Glow"

Looking for thoughts on an art conversation....

Do you think an artist is continually getting better and growing or do you think at some point they hit their prime and maintain status quo (as in an athlete or someone with physical strength and adeptness)? Do you think the freshness of ideas and eagerness to experiment in the early stages is second to the maturity of technical skill and experience? Or maybe early in one's learning curve, an artist hits on something above their present level and then they play catch-up for awhile? Hmmmm.......Check out your older work and tell me what you think!

Madison Meadow

This painting is of the Madison River area in West Yellowstone. It had been awhile since visiting Yellowstone and though it's changed from fires, it remains one of the most beautiful places in the west!

New Watercolors