Congratulations to Shannon Evans who placed as a finalist in the 5th Edition!

Who are you?

My name is Shannon Evans, I’m a 27-year-old abstract oil painter who is based in Los Angeles, California. I grew up in a small town, Tehachapi, California. I’ve always been interested in art and painting for as long as I can remember. But when I was 12 years old is when I decided it was what I wanted to do with my life. Growing up in such a small town, following your dreams wasn’t something you did. I got a lot of pushback and condescending comments about my dreams to be an artist. But regardless, I took the leap because I know this is what I was born to do. 

Can you discuss the inspiration and thought process behind your winning work "you say the whole world's ending, honey it already did"? 

I was going through a rough time in my life when I was working on that painting. The way I paint is very intuitive and is very influenced by my own emotions. I was at my old job and we had started going back into the office after working from home for so long because of the pandemic. And I really struggled with that. The commute was bad, I found I was getting tried differently in the office than working from home, my insomnia and anxiety were out of control and I was having panic attacks almost every day. I was painting on one of my days off after about a month of feeling like this and I started crying while painting and actually threw my paintbrush at the canvas, which is still visible on the finished piece. It’s a painting of very volatile emotions and vulnerability. 

What drew you to explore abstraction in your work? 

It was the freedom it gave me. In school, I had never actually painted abstract before and was a realism/figurative painter. But for my final in my intermediate painting class, it was painting a collage and I was having a miserable time with it. My teacher and mentor came over and suggested I break it down and abstract it because she said painting shouldn’t feel like a chore. So I did and I’ve been hooked on abstract painting ever since. 

Your colour palettes span intensely between warm and cool, can you discuss your decision making on colour for a piece? 

Colour is definitely the main focus of my work. So much can be conveyed through colour. I mix my colour palettes very intuitively. That means my colour palettes changed primarily based on what I’m feeling. I will also use colour in more of the traditional landscape sense–green for land, blue for the sky, etc. I play around with a lot of warm & cool colour shifts as a way to create a composition in my work. I do this also with saturation, so the paintings will have a “glow” in them. 

What do you hope to communicate with your work? 

I want my work to resonate with people so they don’t feel so alone in their feelings. Even if a painting is about a hard topic or feeling, I want people to know that they are not alone in that feeling, that the painting speaks to them. I also want to bring beauty into the world; to bring light and color into someone’s space and joy to them whenever they look at the painting.

Do you have a particular piece that you view as your most accomplished? Why? 

This is hard because each painting teaches me different lessons and are my favourite for different reasons. I would have to say the piece that I view as the most accomplished is “like the stars chase the sun.” It took me a while to find my footing and my full artistic voice after art school. This piece was accepted into a gallery show (which was my first one since college and has since been shown in other shows) when I was really doubting myself and my new work. I was worried that I had made my best work in college but getting into this gallery show really boosted my confidence in myself and in my work. 

Can you sum up the totality of what your work represents in one word? 

Emotions. My work is completely influenced by the way that I’m feeling so of course those feelings get transferred to the painting. A lot of my work has a lot of deep meaning in them from the titles to the colours used, to the layers of failed paintings underneath the finished one. 

Can you discuss why you chose painting as a medium for your work and voice as opposed to others? 

I really think it’s because of the physicality of painting. It’s more hands-on than photography but not as much as sculpture. I really enjoy how painting with a brush can mimic handwriting so painting becomes each person's individual language. And colour. To have such a direct control to mix and create colour is why I love painting so much. Colour is so magical. 

Have you experimented with other mediums? If so, which ones and how? 

Yes, I have! I’ve worked in watercolours. I actually started working in watercolours because I did a study abroad summer program in Italy and we weren’t allowed to use oil paints. I actually really influenced how I work with oils in an interesting way. So I would say to try different mediums whenever you can! You never know what will influence your work. 

Can you talk about your biggest learning experience during the process of creating your works?

The biggest thing I’ve learned is honestly that painting a “bad painting” doesn’t make you a bad artist and you can simply paint over it. It sounds simple but I’ll talk with other artists or artists that are just starting out and they’re paralysed to mess up, to make an ugly painting. And making ugly paintings is the only way you make good paintings. I have so many paintings that I have painted over and have never seen the light of day. So make ugly paintings!

Can you discuss your biggest success since starting your artistic journey?

My biggest success would have to be when I sold my biggest painting to date. It was a 54x56 inch painting and I never thought I would be able to sell a painting that large. It was so validating that I made the right career path. 

What projects are you working on currently? Can you discuss them?

I just started working on my new collection! I’m so excited about it. It’s called Still Here and it’s inspired by still-lives of flowers and lots of nature imagery. The concept is I’ve been feeling very stuck, frozen and these paintings depict that. It’s a play on words with the title, “still here” in the negative connotation like I haven’t moved in years but also in the positive connotation “still here” like I’m not giving up on this. 

Lastly, I like to ask everyone what advice they would give to their fellow artists/photographers, what is your advice?

My advice would be to make art that you truly love making or else it’s going to be really hard to sustain your practice. Because there will be days where you don’t feel like creating or feel like showing up but you got it anyway and if you create work that really speaks to your soul then showing up when you don’t want to will be just a little bit easier.

To view more of Shannon Evans’ work

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