About The Artist
I consider myself a watercolor artist, I consider my work to be a direct reflection of my life. My paintings tend to mirror what I find interesting in my life at any given moment in time. I had the good fortune to live in Vermont for seventeen years. I was inspired on a daily basis by her changing seasonal beauty. I have spent some time in New Mexico and like Vermont I am inspired by the colors and landscape. I have spent the last six months in the Florida Keys and I feel like this is where I will make my next home. The light and color here are like no other place I have been. The turquoise sea and marine life all around me. It is a truly magical place and it has enabled me to tap into my creativity in a new way.
My earlier works are devoted to annual trips and artist residencies in Ireland, and my awe of the natural landscapes and abandoned cottages there. I tend to become attached to subject matters and end up exploring them in watercolor which in turn becomes a body of work. Over the years these obsessions have included still life from above, Irish landscapes, Amish quilt patterns , and my yellow labs over the years Addison, Wyeth, and now Winslow.
Many of the yellow lab prints that I have are of my dog Addison who passed away many years ago. He was my muse for eleven amazing years. He is dearly missed and is the main reason I am a dog painter. My favorite painting of Addison is entitled “Everytime we say goodbye” which was the final painting I did of Addison. This pose was the day before he died and I painted it from a very sad place.
I just completed working on a series of paintings based on my time in Key West “Neptune’s Brother”. The frame or thread of the show is based on a story of a modern day pirate that lives in Key West and has had an interesting past. I worked with an amazing writer who created a poem based on the show entitled “Peleg’s progress”. I have never painted from this place before where there are characters and places that I am creating visually. I really enjoyed the collaborative process.
What’s next ? A series of paintings entitled “No shirt, no shoes”. The idea is to capture that feeling of being off, sand between your toes, sun in your face, day at the beach, but bringing interesting points of view, unusual angles to the compositions. We will see where this leads.
My goal as an artist is to constantly challenge myself as a painter while also bringing a challenge to the viewer. My work tends to lean toward realism, but I try to find a softer, abstract quality in areas of the paintings. Feel free to email me with any questions you might have about my work, or the process. I feel blessed to be able to paint and do this everyday, and I am very happy to share this experiece with others.
-Sean Callahan
Contact Information
cell: 802•989-5910