Participating Artists

Arena Shawn

Biography / Artist Statement

Arena Shawn was a science major and obtained a Ph.D. in Physics in 2008 from Purdue University. However, alongside science she has always had a passion for art. After coming to United States for graduate school, Arena 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 is 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.

Primarily working in oil now, Arena  has started her art journey in watercolor, exhibiting in many national juried exhibitions and earning signature memberships in many watercolor societies, before she eventually took the plunge and started her five-year full-time training in a classical atelier, working exclusively from life, going through drawing and painting programs of casts, still life, portraits and figures.

After completing her atelier training, Arena worked with a group of figurative artists in a cooperative studio, continuing to work with live models and honing her skills, until the time of covid lock-down. Facing the fact that live model studios are no longer a possibility, and with a strong desire to keep working from life, Arena shifted her focus from figurative work to still life, starting to draw inspirations from flowers directly surrounding her directly from her daily life, and objects with a personal history, connecting to her roots. Each still life painting became an intimate personal portrait and a story of memorable time, carrying the emotional weight of joy and sorrow, encounters and loss, sustaining her through the difficult years of Covid. Eventually, it became such an integral part of how she experiences everyday and the passing of time, the changing of seasons, she decided to keep dedicating the majority of her studio time to still life paintings even after the lockdown has lifted, and she could resume working with models from life again.

For Arena, painting in a way of living, a way of being curious and learning about the world around her, and share that intimate knowledge with people who enjoy her artwork. She expresses the deepest gratitude to her collectors, followers, and galleries who continue to believe in her, and support her work. She could not imagine the day she would put down her brush.