Shannon Celia

Shannon Celia is an award-winning artist who paints the “gritty with the pretty” where nature and humans collide. Her watercolors dance between expressionism and abstraction while long walks, gardening, a 7lb terrier and kooky backyard chickens fuel her daily paint habit. She uses fearless strokes, big brushes, paper, wood and various tools. Born in Charleston, raised in New England and working most often in her SoCal studio, Celia also travels and paints in Wyoming, Idaho and Texas as time allows. All of these unique regions influence her work and her new LYRICAL LANDSCAPES celebrate “the physical and emotional places” she goes seeking both roots and wings. She explains, “I’m a homebody at heart, but my insatiable curiosity keeps me exploring.”

Celia’s work is collected internationally and she has enjoyed 16 career solo exhibits, most recently at the Aviation Museum of Santa Paula, CA 2023, the Channel Islands Maritime Museum in Oxnard, CA 2022 and the Santa Paula Art Museum June 2020-June 2021. A member of several art organizations, she participates in national juried art exhibits & events. As CIMM’s first Artist-in-Residence in 2017, she helped design and launch their yearly program and she’s the founder of Pepperdine University’s “Alumni Art Showcase” in Malibu, CA. The 4th exhibit is Oct.-Nov. 2023. Enjoying a month-long virtual art residency with France’s award-winning Bright Star Brewery in 2021, Celia was also hired for 4 public art projects in the last few years: a 2’x 4’ seascape in 2021, as part of a half-mile long exhibit in Portland Oregon; a 6 ft. fiberglass “Conejo CottonTail Project” rabbit who resides by the lake in Westlake Village, CA & two large utility boxes: downtown Oxnard, CA at 4th & A Street in 2018 & Malibu, CA in 2020 on Winter Way. Celia paints en plein air, mentors young people & is also author of ABC’s of the Sea, but she loves the solitude of her studio best. She paints in series, accepts commissions and while the paint dries, she gardens and writes. Her work can be viewed & purchased online and in select galleries. Please see website and follow on IG and FB for more details. www.shannoncelia.com