Continuing education

Shawn Chamberlain

Canadian interdisciplinary artist and educator.

Photo of instructor, Shawn Chamberlain, rowing a canoe.

Shawn Chamberlain is an interdisciplinary artist based in Calgary AB. He attended the Alberta University of the Arts and received a BFA in Drawing in 2018, in 2021 he earned an MFA in Visual Arts from the University of Windsor.

"I spend time drawing where I land my canoe, I offer tobacco, rest, and continue on to a spot suitable to make camp.

A great deal of the work that I do has a direct relationship to the lands I travel through, as well as the landscape’s influence on me. I am interested in how to approach landscape meaningfully and respectfully.

I strive to be aware of colonial histories embedded within depictions of the Canadian wild. I use wood elements in my painting, inspired by the cedar canvas canoe, to bring the constructed and the altered into the landscape; in an abstract way, the crafted wood brings the human into the landscape. Bent cedar pushes and alters the form of my painting, either by extruding through canvas or disrupting the frame, the 3D elements alter the painted landscape and emit a new space.

It is a response to a type of landscape painting that erased the human presence from the land, that creates the impression of a Canadian wilderness free for the taking."

- Shawn

Shawn's Courses

Design | Drawing | Painting

Colour Fundamentals | Perspective Drawing | Landscape Painting

Learn the fundamentals of colour theory and more. Colour is a key component in art, design, and illustration, setting the tone of what you are communicating. 

Begin to understand the intricacies linear perspective as you draw environments using one, two, and multi-point perspectives. Learn to draw interior spaces and three-dimensional objects with ease and great success.

Understand the challenges of painting a landscape through an analytical approach to perspective, composition, relationships between colour and tone, and manipulation of media. You'll learn, it's not as hard as you may think.