Arena Shawn is a representational fine artist working mainly with oils and watercolor. She was born in Shanghai, China, and received her formal education in the field of Condensed Matter Physics. After completing her Bachelor's degree at Fudan University in Shanghai, she moved to the US to pursue her Master’s and PhD at Purdue University in Indiana. There she attended a painting class one summer, and has been hooked ever since. After getting her PhD, she worked in the semiconductor industry for a few years in Silicon Valley, California. “When working in the corporate world, I had this constant itch to paint,” she says. While living and working in the San Francisco bay area, Arena took the opportunity to attend many art classes and painting workshops around the country with nationally-renowned instructors, including Susan Lyon, Sherrie McGraw, Louis Carr, Michael Klein, Adrien Gottlieb, Noah Buchanon and Kathleen Speranza. Eventually, her calling to art has led her to leave her engineering job in Silicon Valley and begin a study of classical drawing and painting methods following the 19th-century French academic lineage in the Golden Gate Atelier in Oakland, CA. It is there that she studied traditional life drawing, painting, and sculpture, with great emphasis on in-depth study and classical techniques. She enjoys working in a direct observational style in nature. “I started painting more seriously after starting my atelier training and eventually decided to pursue art full-time. The act of creating something realistic and beautiful from scratch just brings so much joy to me,” Shawn shares. Shawn is the recipient of many prestigious awards, among which were National Oil and Acrylics Painter’s Association 2023 “Best of America," National Juried Exhibition “Best of Still Life” Award, American Impressionist Society 2023 National Juried Associate Member Show “Award of Excellence”, Oil Painters America 2021 Online Showcase, and National Oil and Acrylics Painter’s Association Fall 2021 Online International Juried Competition Honorable Mention, and Art Renewal Center 2022 Salon Inclusion. She is professionally affiliated with many art groups, including, but not limited to, the California Art Club, American Women Artists, Oil Painters of America, National Oil and Acrylics Painter’s Society, American Impressionist Society and Portrait Society of America. Shawn currently resides in Carrabelle, FL.