i love when you make a wonderful discovery about a friend. shayna larsen and i had boys in the same soccer league for several years. we sat on the sidelines of games chatting about mom things on many saturday mornings. until a few months ago, i had no idea that she is a gifted watercolorist. i happened upon her paintings on facebook and was completely smitten. shayna primarily paints animal portraits and has begun focusing on spirit animals. i call them portraits because she somehow makes their eyes so compelling and powerful that you feel like you are looking right into their souls. often she paints her subjects in profile so you only see one eye, or when animals are depicted face on, the second eye is not shown. there is so much warmth and compassion in her work that you feel the expanse of her understanding and respect for the animal.

recently, shayna gave me a tour of her art studio and shared some of the pieces she has been working on. when she began painting, she utilized a multitude of hues across the spectrum. of late, shayna has been working around the color palette individually. she has been zeroing in on one hue at a time, in order to fully discover and understand the properties of each pigment. the result of this study is a collection of pieces all done utilizing only one color. the range and depth she mines from a single pigment is stunning. the piece that first caught my eye is a hot pink bunny reaching up to sniff a dandelion. there is something so peaceful and sweet about this painting that i feel calm every time i look at it. plus, shayna combined two of my favorite things: bunnies and pink. the bunny now lives in my kitchen. enjoy her work and follow shayna at: https://www.instagram.com/shaynas_watercolors/

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