About Shannon Carlson: Shannon Carlson is a Pacific Northwest encaustic artist, based in Portland, Oregon. Her work is influenced by a sense of place—particularly wild places, the delicate balance of our ecosystem and the work of conservation. She finds magic in the transformative quality while working with wax, pigment and fire—often working en plein air in her early layers of a painting, allowing her to immerse herself in the inspiration of the natural environment. In her most recent encaustic and mixed media work, she is concerned with nature, in all its forms, and the urgency to find balance. Carlson has also joyfully participated in the annual Sitka Art Invitational.

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Shannon Carlson shares this: Through our travels, we are of past places and of new places. When I paint, I am thinking of these connections and what they evoke in us—how we are rooted to them and how we move through them. It is the Pacific Northwest’s rich, natural landscapes that have provided inspiration for my work. The urgency to protect these wild places grows constantly as a drive—more and more every day. I currently have a solo exhibit of new works through Rowboat Gallery, on view at Headlands Lodge on the Oregon Coast through the end of September 2021. In the coming months, I will be beginning my most challenging series to date, with grateful thanks to the Regional Arts and Culture Council. The series will be made up of large encaustic pieces on panel—much larger than I’ve ever worked—since the challenges of working large scale in encaustic are many. I hope to provide a visual experience centered around conservation of Oregon's wild places—and the effects of climate change. The series will explore abstractions of landscape—dark and light, lushness and texture as a visual language to deal with natural places … an emotive and atmospheric approach to talking about conservation. I hope to explore this area further in the overall context of describing value in wild places, the importance of preservation and—indeed—the priorities for our planet. In the video below, I describe some of the process and thinking that goes into my work and how my practice is shaped by the many places one may call a studio. One final note: I have huge appreciation for Sitka and truly believe in its powerful mission and its importance in the art and science communities. I am thrilled to be part of Sitka’s ‘Inside the Studio’. Thank you, Sitka Community!