Shannon Yarbrough

I took up painting about three years ago. On vacation, we stopped in at one of those pottery painting places with two friends, something I’d always wanted to do, and painted a platter to hang on one of the friend’s walls. The two friends painted abstract platters. I painted an old rotting tree next to a lake with mountain peaks in the background. Upon returning home, I purchased a canvas because I wanted to experiment with painting more. Using acrylic paints and an easel I had originally purchased to display a large framed photograph, my new hobby was born. The Purple Buddha was my first painting after the platter. I sold the painting to a friend for $25.00.

That year, I painted a simple portrait of a barn for my mother and one of a church for my sister. Asking for paints, brushes, and more canvases for Christmas easily fueled the new hobby. I spent a lot of time the following year, 2006, working on several paintings that would become gifts again that year for family. These paintings were larger scale copies of old fashion winter scenes of churches and homes I’d seen on gift name tags. My flavor for painting old homes, barns, and churches continued in 2007. Although not painting as much, all of my work was presented to family and friends as gifts through the year.

One of my best paintings ever was this country scene of a cabin and an old tree with a rope swing. The iris in the foreground is an actual photograph I took and decoupaged onto the canvas. It is only one of two paintings so far where I added a real photograph into the portrait. This particular painting was given to my sister for her birthday last year.

This acrylic painting was a request from J. I framed it and gave it to him for our 4 year anniversary. It is of the Laura Ingels Wilder home in Mansfield, Missouri.

The double Budweiser Clydesdale painting was a year long project and a request from my brother. My brother mentioned how he’d like to have such a painting at Christmas 2006. I worked on the two paintings all year long and gave them to him for Christmas 2007. I much prefer to paint architecture, but this was my second endeavor at painting horses.

This is a 9 x 12 painting with some more decoupage work. I glued a scrap booking page to a canvas, the reason for the seam, and left some of the page’s original look exposed in the top left corner. The miniature postcards and stamps were pictures cut from a greeting card envelope. This painting was done for a coworker, who had purchased the greeting card for another employee’s birthday. Upon signing the card, I commented about the pictures on the envelope. The coworker saved the enveloped and gave it to me out of humor. I cut the images from the envelope and used them in this painting.

Although unfinished here, this was the beginning of another church painting for another holiday gift. The only additions after this photo was taken were some green ferns along the bottom. I particularly like the simplicity of this painting, calling it The Way Home.

These simple close-up facial paintings of Santa and a Snowman were framed and given as a charitable donation to an auction to raise money for a home for battered women and their children. I was commissioned by a coworker to replicate the paintings because they liked them so much.

Although I am still developing and experimenting with my painting skills, if you like what you see here, let me know. I am inspired by photos or images, often adding my own touch, if you have something you’d like to have captured in a painting.

Sizes of canvas and fees for time are completely negotiable.

Check back here soon for paintings I will be offering for sale.

April 2008

This is another experiment with decoupage. The canvas was also wrapped in hemp string like a present which I painted over and then removed once the paint dried. It was a technique I picked up from an arts and craft festival we went to while on vacation. This abstract painting is actually being shipped back to Alabama to hopefully be sold in another arts festival in May.

I call this one Dauphin Island Fisherman, inspired by the pelicans I saw almost everyday while on vacation. I painted this to sell in an art show that will be held in May on Dauphin Island. I painted this one in two days, the quickest I think I’ve ever painted anything. One of my favorites!

Two more seaside themes for the upcoming art show in Alabama.