Shapna Painting

I was born in the UK, spent many years in France but I am now back living in the UK. I am a self taught artist and I paint those on the very edge of society. I want to use my art to help raise awareness of the issues in the world today, I want to help make the invisible visible and ultimately I want my art to scream. I am always looking to the long term as my ambition is to be a relevant and significant artist today and also in hundreds of years from now. I always had a passion for art, I knew this was my gift yet my career took me away from my passion. It was only in 2015 that I knew that I could no longer live a lie so I swapped a career in business for a profession as a full time artist, a job that in my heart I was always meant to do. My career as an artist has accelerated since 2015. In that time I was part of the prominent "Seven Artists Exhibition" at The Strand Gallery London. I have also been nominated by The Royal Society of Oil Painters, The Royal Society of Portrait Painters and I received a nomination for the 2015, 2016,2017 and 2020 BP award. I have had my work displayed in London, Madrid, Paris, New York and Amsterdam and I have been described as one the most relevant artists in the world today by the German Kunst Heute Art publication and the Contemporary Art Curator Magazine. In 2019 I was honoured to win the first prize at the prestigious London Biennale as well as the prestigious International Michelangelo prize for art. In 2020 I was awarded the Venice International Artist Of The Year and in 2021 I was honoured to win The International Confederation of Art Critics Award. Twenty Twenty Two was a significant year in my art career as I was invited to show my work at The Louvre in Paris, I had my first auction sale at Bonhams London and I won the Velazquez International Painting award. I have often been asked why I paint homeless people or people on an emotional knife edge. From a very early age I had always wanted to paint a homeless person, I do not know why, why would a young boy want to sketch a homeless person rather than a still life, a landscape or a portrait of someone that they know? I firmly believe there are some questions that you can not answer, sometimes your heart tells you something and you just have to follow it no matter where it takes you. This is how I feel.