Hi there!
I'm so excited at the response to my new collection of oil paintings coming up. It's been many years of exploring my creativity and working on my skills to finally produce a full collection and I don't think it could come at a better time.
I first began this collection with one thought in mind - to remove all the pressure of planning and creating (which can be an extremely lengthy process of days or weeks) and simply paint. I have spent so much time working on skill and execution that I desperately wanted the freedom to paint as I did in childhood - directly on the canvas and without pre-planning or sketching.
What came out was a collection of moments from my heart and mind that symbolizes both the melancholy- tinged nostalgia of reflecting on the past, and the hope-filled whimsy of being open to something fresh and new. I think we all want that feeling a bit right now.
As a child raised in a small community in the rural Maritimes on the East Coast of Canada, I could never have imagined as a future adult I'd be living across this vast country in a city I'd never grown up in, married into another culture and raising a family of four girls in a pandemic-filled world. But with challenge there is always a hint of excitement - and I have never been one to shy away from trying something new.
So with the excitement of moving forward as the world has changed yet again, I think a little glance back, remembering what is left behind, and the spirit of adventure of what comes next, this series was born.
This Collection carries the distinct Color palette and windy feel of the Atlantic coast of my childhood, which is where the name ‘I Remember the Sea’ came from. The ocean is a great metaphor, ancient and powerful, and reminds us of the people who came before us trying to conquer it, tame it and live off it. It also will live on inspiring new generations. It encompasses the spirit of past and future. Of stormy and calm.
There is a special secret here - despite the name these are not paintings of the ocean. But the variety of symbols - dandelions ready to blow their seeds into the breeze to be carried who knows where - seagulls passing above with their distinctive cries saying 'follow me and you will find the ocean' - and the individual characters whom I coaxed out of the canvas, all have stories that feel both nostalgia for the past and eager for what comes next.
You never know when your next best moment will be, a memory, a change or an adventure. But remembering the past and being open to what comes is the spirit of 'I Remember the Sea".
I wish you to find peace in yourself for the things gone and the things to come and these paintings were created to remind you of this.
Be Safe,
Shannon