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Arts & Entertainment

Kirkland Painter Joanne Shellan Chosen for Solo Show at Governor's Mansion

The West of Market Neighborhood artist launched her career with classes at Kirkland Arts Center, and finds plenty of kindred spirits in the community.

WHEN KIRKLAND artist Joanne Shellan began painting 14 years ago, she never dreamed that one day her work would be chosen for a solo show at the Governor’s Mansion. In late May of this year, a dozen of Joanne’s luminous landscapes and other pieces will grace the gallery in Olympia, where they will be displayed for one year. Fifteen thousand visitors and dignitaries will see her work during that time.

Beverly Graham, art curator for the Governor's Mansion Foundation, says that artists selected for the mansion gallery must reside in Washington State, and the works they exhibit must be “suitable to represent the state, even if abstract or semi-representational. Joanne is an outstanding talent and fully qualifies, as does her excellent art work.”

From the time she was a child, Joanne says she “always felt confident and comfortable doing art.” She painted signs in high school and considered a career as a graphic artist. Instead, she got a minor in art at Washington State University and went to work in her family’s business, Shellan Jewelers in Mt. Vernon (the store has since moved to Burlington). She spent ten years as a gemologist and put art on the back burner.

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After her children were born, she set up a table in her bedroom and began making cards. A few years later she signed up for a weekly painting class at the and was soon hooked. “It was the first time I’d really painted, and it was huge for me.”

Joanne started doing watercolors, then moved to acrylic. About four years ago she began painting with oils, and feels she has found her calling. She describes her paintings as “impressionistic and spirited, with saturated colors.”

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Eight years ago her friend Chris Sharp attended an art studio tour on Camano Island, called Joanne, and said “We have to do this in Kirkland.” The two women gathered 12 artists for the first Kirkland Artist Studio Tour (KAST), and by the time they handed the event off to the Kirkland Arts Center four years ago, there were 60 artists participating. The event is held on Mother’s Day weekend, and this will be the ninth year.

JOANNE MOVED to Kirkland in 1996 with her husband and two young boys. “It was an easy place to make friends,” she says, “and there were lots of my kind of people -- kindred spirits who were liberal, interested in community, educated, nice, and who support the arts.”

Joanne works out of her home studio in the West of Market neighborhood. She usually spends about five hours a day painting. She also spends a lot of time running her business, and that includes putting up and taking down paintings in the galleries that show her work.

“Being an artist isn’t all just about staring dreamily at a subject and applying dollops of paint to canvas,” she says. “There is a ridiculous amount of carting paintings hither and thither. It’s about 50 percent sweat and 50 percent creativity."

Two years ago, Joanne began taking classes from Liana Bennett, who runs Arts Umbrella, an art school in Bothell. “Working under a great teacher the past two years,” says Joanne, “I’ve learned more than I learned in the previous 12.”

Joanne believes that art is important for many reasons. “When people exercise their right brain, they become better problem solvers. The arts help people express themselves. Without art, we’d have only functional things with no color or graceful lines to delight our eyes.”

She urges people to support the arts by attending theatre and music shows, purchasing original art, and “participating in the arts by being an artist in whatever way you are able. It doesn’t matter if you’re not “good” at it, the point is the doing of it.”

What's next for Joanne as an artist? “I want to keep working hard at becoming the best artist I can become, move up the ladder, and keep the door open to mentoring and helping other artists.”

She offers the following advice to aspiring artists: “I think that training the eye to be a careful observer is one of the most important things an artist learns to do. Keeping a sketch book handy is one way to keep your artist eye in practice."

Joanne gives back to Kirkland by donating 25 percent of the profits from her art business to , as well as donating multiple paintings every year to charitable auctions.

Currently, you can see Joanne’s work at Kaewyn Gallery in Bothell, Gallery by the Bay in Stanwood, Scott Milo Gallery in Anacortes, and Pines Gallery and Wine Tasting in Hood River, Oregon.

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