Looking at Shanti Shea An’s paintings is kind of like touching a fuzzy piece of stone fruit. It makes us feel warm in the chest, and a little bit tingly inside. Her candid subject matter, loose brush strokes and divine pastel paint palettes simultaneously remind us of paintings from another time and a quiet moment we had yesterday, or the day before that. Her works feel familiar in a wholesome, homely way. Like we’ve been or seen the scenes she paints before. The effect of her paintings are soothing, calming; and for these reasons we can’t stop scrolling through her work right now.
Shanti is an emerging artist from Canberra. She graduated from the Australian National University in 2015 with a Bachelor of Visual Arts and completing her Honours in the painting workshop last year. And not without prestige — she won the University Medal for 2016, graduating with First Class Honours and top of the school. See, we mustn’t be the only ones getting that good tingly feeling!
Her work explores the role of intimacy and touch, through painting. Working in both figuration and abstraction, she looks at how images of love are both experienced and “read” through our understanding of language and narrative. In some of her works, she has reflected on an overarching theme of love, as an emotion and an activity, and exploring the contemporary experience of romance. Her work also seems inspired by daily routines and rituals, using shape and we even see little hints of contemporary greats like Henri Matisse.
See more of Shanti Shea An’s work —