Can you describe your artistic journey?
My artistic journey has been a little circuitous. My parents, Nelson and Leona Shanks, founded Studio Incamminati in Philadelphia in 2002. My father was a world-renowned painter and portrait painter. Originally, I decided to rebel against my parents and did not want to be a painter, despite their hopes and dreams. I studied photography, I studied English literature, and finally one day, realized there was nothing I could do with my life other than being a contemporary realist painter.
What does it mean to you to continue your father, Nelson Shanks’, artistic legacy, while developing your own path?
I feel a tremendous responsibility to carry on my father's artistic legacy. And what's so exciting about being a realist painter is you can be following in the footsteps of painter’s centuries before you, while also forging your own creative path.
There is, of course, pressure to try and achieve the standards, and the precedents which he set, but at the same time, no creative person can ever put too many parameters on themselves, especially when it means achieving a certain degree of success. As an artistic person, you have to give yourself freedom and give yourself grace to find what success really means to you as an individual.
How does training at Studio Incamminati influence your work?
Studio Incamminati is one of those schools that just produces the most well-rounded education and fully enables an artist by the time that they finish the program to exercise absolute creative freedom. We are extensively taught and instructed in classical drawing, écorché, color theory, color study. And while the school's curriculum is very heavily based in figure drawing and painting, the skillset is so balanced and so well-rounded that no matter what an artist chooses to focus on after graduation, they have such a strong harness on their skillset that there's nothing stopping them from producing anything that comes to mind.
How do you get from first sketch to finished piece?
At Studio Incamminati we practice a direct observational painting approach which means that we paint directly on our canvas without doing any preliminary drawings on the canvas.
We start with a very thin, washy neutral brown in which we do our drawings, and we're mass-oriented, which means that we start with the most abstract possible shapes. And then, similar to carving out of marble, we use light and shadow shapes to carve out the shapes of the figure that we are trying to bring to life on canvas. It’s really the most effective way of becoming the best drafts person you can as quickly as possible.
What does a typical day look like for you during the Winsor & Newton residency?
A typical day for me during the Winsor & Newton residency, here in my private studio, I arrive at about 8:30am. I have my coffee. I like to sit down and just try to channel a very peaceful mindset as I'm starting the day.
I like to collect quirky, feminine, whimsical little objects and I like to surround myself with things that are beautiful and calming and inspiring in my studio. I think that it's very important as an artist to be surrounding yourself with things that are just fueling your creativity, even on a seemingly microscopic scale. But everything counts, and everything feeds into that beautiful, whimsical, creative mindset that is so empowering for a painter.
How do your life experiences influence your creative process?
Before I started at Studio Incamminati, I had gotten an associate’s degree in photography and a bachelor's in English literature. And while I was getting my bachelor's in English literature, I was deeply interested in children's literature and folktales from around the world. So, in my painting, I really want to incorporate all of these different motifs and the feelings that I feel when I'm reading Grimms’ Fairy Tales or Fairy Tales by Pierrot.
I think that literature, and especially children's literature, takes readers on a journey that is so psychologically engaging and so emotionally engaging, and I want to work to incorporate the feelings that a person feels when they're reading into my paintings. And figure out a way of engaging my viewers in the same way that fuels their imagination, that is psychologically and emotionally engaging. I want to paint paintings that tell stories that people can hold on to.
How have Winsor & Newton materials supported the work you’re creating?
For me, in my own creative practice, Winsor & Newton materials are the most natural choice. Winsor and Newton, for me, is about continuity and legacy. And that is what painting is for me, continuing my father's painting legacy. Winsor & Newton was his preferred brand. He painted the portraits of Princess Diana using Winsor & Newton paints, and he painted American presidents using Winsor & Newton paints. And I believe that Winsor & Newton paints are paints that will help me bring my vision and my purpose to life.
What themes are you exploring through your current work?
Outside of commission work, when I'm conceptualizing still life paintings or the figure paintings that I plan on pursuing within the next year, I'm really interested in narrative motifs that channel a particular kind of personality and then figure out a way of using stationary objects to illustrate the character of that individual. I like using objects that are whimsical and mysterious and have a level of intricacy that will help create a very nuanced portrait of a person, primarily through still life objects.
In my painting, I want to explore motifs and themes that are transportive for my viewers. So using delicate objects, nuanced objects, I want to figure out the perfect balance of taking objects that are relatable for my viewers and portraits that are relatable for my viewers. But find that extra special thing that turns painting into magic.
I want my figure paintings and my still lifes to be very narrative, with a level of theatricality that are going to keep the viewer very engaged and have a fantastic balance of mystery and directness.
As a visual artist with such a strong background in literature, I'm just so swept away by fairy tales and stories of adventure. I love reading novels that take me to another place and time, and that's what I would like to do for my viewers in my paintings. I want to explore motifs, and I want to utilize beautiful, delicate, whimsical objects that are going to transplant my viewers into another magical place.
Where do you draw inspiration from?
I would say that I draw my inspiration from three primary sources. The first one would be Renaissance and Baroque painting. My father was an avid collector of Renaissance and Baroque artwork and furniture, and so I grew up looking at these incredible pieces, all of which told incredible stories.
Another of my sources of inspiration, because I had gotten an associate's degree in photography, I studied a lot of old Hollywood and 20th century fashion photographers such as, Richard Avedon, Cecil Beaton, and their fashion photography just took people on this incredible, exciting, whimsical journey, which was all very deeply rooted in glamor. And I am very eager to incorporate that kind of glamor and that whimsy into my painting.
And another one of my primary sources of inspiration is, of course, the children's literature and fairy tales, because I just love the sense of adventure and the hero's journey that children experience and the way that it shapes them into the little heroes that they'll become. And I want to make all of my viewers feel like heroes or remember the heroic journey that they embarked upon at one point in their lives and will continue to do.
What do you hope people take away when they experience your art?
I hope that what people feel when they look at my art is what I feel when I read adventure stories or fairy tales. A transformative experience that fills a person with wonder and adventure and longing and desire to achieve the profound.
