Shannon Evans

Abstraction allows me, as an artist, to interpret the world around me and place myself within the work. Using oil paint, I explore expressive, gestural mark making with references to the natural landscape. My paintings are influenced by daily walks I take; I use the imagery from my memories to imbue the work with layers of nostalgic feeling and whispers of nature. By breaking down and abstracting these references to the natural landscape, the brushwork comes to the forefront of the painting. The juxtaposition and accumulation of advancing and receding positive and negative expressive brushwork form an abstracted landscape: a sense of place, a moment in time. By building up these multiple layers, the work transforms into a mosaic record of my life: feelings, memories, emotions. 

The paintings become, in its purest form, an extension of myself. I can look at a painting and remember all of the stages it went through. The evocative, bold and sometimes frantic character of these marks creates a captivating sense of movement that draws one into the piece. Color and paint are used expressively to create a multitude of hues that overlap and build to create spatial relationships. These colors are an intuitive combination of chromic neutrals and highly saturated hues. The ardent character of both the brushwork and color gives the viewer a glimpse into my emotional state at the time of the painting's creation. It's a release; it's a true catharsis.

Education:

2018 BFA in Drawing and Painting, California State University, Long Beach, Long Beach, CA

Exhibitions:

2022 Little by Little, Art Intersection, Gilbert, AZ
2022 Small's Show, Gallery 46, Baton Rouge, LA
2022 Off the Easel, Ashton Gallery, San Diego, CA
2022 Distant/Memory, Visionary Projects, New York, NY
2022 - 2023 Expressing Nature's Value, Ellis Hall, Hendrix College, Conway, AR
2022 The Next Big Thing 2022, Studio Channel Islands, Camarillo, CA
2022 Metaverse, Schmetaverse, DOORS.NYC, West Hollywood, CA
2022 Centered on the Center, Huntington Beach Art Center, Huntington Beach, CA
2021 BIG, JCO'S Art Haus, Los Gatos, CA
2021 Drawn to Paper, Brea Gallery, Brea, CA
2021 Made in California, Brea Gallery, Brea, CA
2018 Arbor, Flatline Gallery, Long Beach, CA
2018 Art Without Borders, Via G. Leopardi 12, Florence, Italy
2018 Insights, Carolyn Campagna Kleefeld Contemporary Art Museum, Long Beach, CA
2018 Everything Must Go, Max L. Gatov Gallery, Long Beach, CA
2018 From Here, Werby Gallery, Long Beach, CA
2018 Displacement, Max L. Gatov Gallery West, Long Beach, CA

Artistic Influences:

Joan Mitchell, Claude Monet, and Vincent van Gogh

Tags:

Abstract, abstract landscape, oil painting, impressionism, abstract expressionism.