About the Artist
If you've ever traced the glassy trails left in the wakes of long-gone boats on the bay, you already know that water has a kind of memory.
Driven by nostalgia for a childhood spent at the shore, I paint the sea as a form of autobiography; in my artwork, water functions as both medium and memory.
With vivid and softly blended acrylic colors that allow the ocean to be my visual language, my paintings draw inspiration from the interplay of light and liquid, and how sky and sea change and amplify one another.
Painting the sea is my way of showing you where I came from; it's how I can bring you right to the shore as light passes through green Atlantic waves, and say, “See? This is what it feels like to be home.”
ABOUT SHANAN
Acrylics painter Shanan Haislip has called northwestern Connecticut home for more than a decade, but her paintings all carry a hint of salty Atlantic Ocean air. Born and raised in Toms River, New Jersey, she is a self-taught artist whose high-energy, water-inspired work was most recently on display at the Colors of Humanity Art Gallery’s 2020 “Water” and "Wet Paint" and LightSpaceTime Gallery's 2020 "SeaScapes" exhibitions, as well as Gallery Ring's "Land Sea Sky" show. Her work has also been shown at the Maritime Garage Gallery in Norwalk, Connecticut.
Shanan is a graduate of Ithaca College, located in Ithaca, New York, and is a mother, thalassophile, runner, writer, podcast enthusiast, multiple sclerosis-haver and, currently, breast cancer fighter. She can be found on Facebook and Instagram.
