Self Portrait No.2

"Self Portrait No.2"
digital photograph, January 2011

Saturday, October 16th- Cuba Lakes Show with Matt Isbell

SHAWART STUDIO, ST. LOUIS, MO
October 5th, 2010
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

Cuba Lakes welcomes Cuba High Alumni artists Matt Isbell and Colin Michael Shaw on Saturday, October 16th. In conjunction with the Cuba Fest weekend activities, an artist’s reception, free and open to the public will be held from 7pm – 10pm. Cuba Lakes Clubhouse is located at 241 Highway O in Cuba, MO. A special acoustic musical performance by Myles Shaw will entertain the crowd throughout the course of the evening.

The two artists began drawing together after meeting in fifth grade at Cuba R2 schools, often times spending entire weekends at one another’s childhood homes sharing their creative ideas, play, and drawing time. Keeping in touch over the years, Isbell built his career in graphic arts and illustration while Shaw developed his techniques in modern fine art painting. “Though Matt and I grew in very different directions stylistically, we could both easily see a real connection in our current work- the surrealist, fantasy elements prevalent in what we are both doing is undeniable,” says Shaw “An otherworldly influence present in our art is what ties it together- two very distinct, yet both highly imaginative approaches.”

Isbell’s work can be seen and fine art prints purchased at misbell.imagekind.com and misbell.deviantart.com. The day to day of Shaw’s work can be followed at his online artist’s journal: http://shawart.blogspot.com/

End of My Residency at Urban Arts Collective...

"Sister Moon" 2010
carved PVC board, acrylic, varnish
6.75 x 14.25"


My three month residency at Urban Arts Collective is coming to an end- this weekend will likely be your chance to see it, along with the work of Tony Renner, Jane Linders, Craig Downs, and Kevin Belford. Tony will in fact be hosting his last showing at the Collective this Sunday, September 26th from 11am to 2pm- get down to see Tony’s work while you still can! Thanks to everyone who came to all the openings and share a bite to eat with us at the café- we do this because it’s what we love to do, and we appreciate your support :)

Along with the fourteen canvases I made for my run at The Collective, I also produced three carvings for the new grouping on “signpainter’s board, which is essentially a thick PVC board that can be cut and shaped with carpentry tools or even with a small handtool- in my case a small bamboo pick. I was gifted these three chucks of board years ago by my beloved painting teacher Charles SHOEmaker. SHOE said, “Here Colin, take these and see what you can do with them- it’s kinda fun to play with.” I promptly put them in my closet for seventeen years and forgot about it. While digging through stuff looking for inspiration for new work at the Collective I uncovered them and started scraping out designs- they became “Soldier”, “Soldier with Child” (pictured below), and “Sister Moon”(pictured above). I’d like to make more, but found that SHOE was giving me some scrap of REALLY expensive material, so I dunno what will come of that. He always treated me like a son, and the older I get the more I appreciate it… I wish he was still here so I could tell him, but at least I FINALLY did something with the damned boards! :D

"Soldier" 2010
carved PVC board, acrylic, varnish
8.75 x 15.625"

"Soldier with Child" 2010
carved PVC board, acrylic, varnish
10 x 16"

New Paintings: Sunday, Sept. 19th

New Old Stuff on my Etsy Store

"The One I Love", 2001
silver paint pen, colored pencil, watercolor on paper
approx. 10.5 x 7.5"
From the artist's private archive of drawings/paintings

Hiya. Been super busy making new paintings for my final event/show during my tenure at Urban Arts Collective- it has been fun, and a real challenge making a whole new group of paintings to keep up as the summer has progressed. I'm working on five new paintings right now, in fact!

In other news, I've started putting some of my never-shown-before paintings from my private archive up on the ShawArt Etsy Store. These are paintings I created over the last several years, and promptly hid in a box after completion. Some of the images were sold as prints all across Missouri and The United States during various travels and in retail establishments... it's fun to think of ALL THOSE PRINTS floating around out there somewhere, and maybe YOU have one- who knows?

Don't be afraid to peek!
Thank You!

Sneak Peek...

"Winter" 2010
24 x 30"
acrylic, mixed media on canvas

Here's a sneak peek at one of my new paintings that will be showing this Sunday, Aug. 15th at the Urban Arts Collective in sunny South Saint Louis. Come by and say hello from 11:00am to 2:00pm- I look forward to seeing you :)

New Paintings @ Urban Arts, Sunday August 15th

Urban Arts Collective welcomes artist Colin Michael Shaw on Sunday August 15th. A visit with the artist, free and open to the public, will be held from 11am – 2pm. Urban Arts Collective is adjacent to Urban Eats Café at 3301 Meramec, St. Louis, MO 63118. This showing of the painter’s newest works created in the last few months will be the second of three during his residency throughout the entire summer at the Collective which hosts four to five artists at a time for three months tenure. “I will continue the new work all summer and present as completed on the second and third showings of Sunday, August 15th and Sunday, September 19th, both from 11am to 2pm.”, says Shaw. “This is a great opportunity to work in a progressive St. Louis neighborhood not far from where my father was raised, which fascinates me.”

Urban Eats Café is a casual neighborhood eatery serving healthy and fresh-made menu items. In cooperation with the Arts Collective, surrounding local businesses, the Dutchtown Downtown Business Assoc. and youth outreach of the Dutchtown South Neighborhood Community Corps, Urban Eats thriving among the urban revitalization of this South St. Louis community. For more information visit urbaneatscafe.com or the artist’s blog http://shawart.blogspot.com/