Known for her powerful landscapes, cloudscapes and abstract drawings, Sara Shawger has always been inspired by the majesty of nature and the eternal conflict between order and chaos.
A native of Pennsylvania, Sara spent many years in Santa Fe, New Mexico where her art thrived in the land known for its brilliant sunsets, rugged landscapes and big, bursting skies.
Sara’s paintings and drawings are characterized by the repetition of lines and loose boxes or squares that fade in and out of the surface, revealing the depth, moods and hidden colors of the subject. Low horizons and a strong vertical emphasis keep the focus above the horizon, into the sky and beyond.
Her signature marks and patterns are not by accident. “I believe we all have an inner language developed from childhood of signs and symbols."
The artist defines abstraction in her art as an extreme close-up of the subject to the point of no longer recognizing its whole. Being so close, the viewer can get a rare glimpse of the object’s intricate space and enter its vivid, complex and sometimes strange world.
Santa Fe has been a catalyst of sorts for Sara’s artistic endeavors. After her first visit years ago, she began a series of landscape drawings with bold colors, lines and shapes that more closely depict the boundless landscapes of the southwest.
The resulting images rest somewhere in the balance between imagination and reality.
Sara was formerly trained at West Virginia Wesleyan College, where she received a degree in English and studio art. She earned a master’s degree in painting and drawing at Virginia’s James Madison University. She was also a college art teacher for five years, prior to redirecting her professional life toward a career as an artist. She currently lives in Los Angeles, CA.
2017 OCEAN, Beyond the Lines Art Gallery, Santa Monica, CA
2016 Art Shared, ArtShare LA Group Show, Los Angeles, CA
2015 ArtShare LA, Groundworks, Santa Monica, CA
2015 Group show, Rogoway Turquoise Tortoise, Tubac, AZ
2015 Solo exhibit, Groudwork, Santa Monica, CA
2014 Group Holiday Show, Gallery 822, Santa Fe, NM
2013 Seven, Beals & Abbate Fine Art, Santa Fe, NM
2013 Artists Charitable Fund, 20th Annual Art Auction, Loveland, CO
2012 Point of View, Beals & Abbate Fine Art, Santa Fe, NM
2011 Chae-Um CC Gallery, 3rd International Tour, Moo-Ju, Korea
2011 Yu-SHin Museum of Art, 3rd International Tour, Harbin, China
2011 Park Fine Art, 3rd International Tour, Albuquerque, NM
2011 Mount Palomar Winery, Temecula, CA
2011 Lorimar Winery, Temecula, CA
2010 Miklo's, Feels Like Home, Santa Fe, NM
2010 Max's, Excerpts of Space, Santa Fe, NM
2009 Sleeth Gallery, Alumni Exhibit, Buckhannon, WV
2009 The Empty Bowl, Art Auction, Santa Fe, NM
2009 Open Hands Art Auction, Nussbaumer's, Santa Fe, NM
2008 John David Brooks Gallery, Fairmont, WV
2007 Appalachian Gallery, Morgantown, WV
2007 Sleeth Gallery, Buckhannon, WV
2007 SECAC, Charleston, WV
2006 Sleeth Gallery, Alumni Show, Buckhannon, WV
2005 Callen McJunkin Gallery, Charleston, WV
2004 Graduate Exhibition at Sawhill Gallery, Harrisonburg, 
VA
2004 Rockingham Springs Arboretum, Massanutten Village, VA
2004 Artful Dodger, Harrisonburg, VA
2003 Exhibition 280 Juried Show, Huntington Museum of Art, Huntington, WV
2002 Mitten Gallery, Harrisonburg, VA
2000 Sleeth Gallery, Juried Student Show, Buckhannon, WV
2000 WVWC Student Gallery, Buckhannon, WV
1999 Bridge Series, Buckhannon, West Virginia
1999 Sleeth Gallery, Senior Exhibit, Buckhannon, WV
