Shawn Queenan
I worked in Architecture in early 1970 after getting out of the military living in Hollywood, Florida about six blocks from the beach. I decided to buy a new sailboat. Found the sailboat and gave them a down payment. Now looking for a boat slip, that's when my dream fell apart, the slip cost more than my mortgage on the house. I went to my partner Deborah I was disappointed! Deborah to the rescue. She grew up in France outside of Paris "why don't we go to Paris. I had a couple of months before my next project would start and I was getting paid now anyway. Got our passports and off we went, from Miami to Nassau in the Bahamas to Luxembourg one of the smallest countries in Europe then into France. Reims was the first city that made my eyes pop open. I started sketching some of the buildings, a good thing I had Deborah I didn't know what the building signs meant she translated for me. We sat at Cafe for dinner the bread was incredible everything was incredible. I fell in love with Europe. I started sketching and reading books about painting watercolor and then acrylic that is why I have been called a Sophisticated Primitive. We went to Paris for a couple of months then traveled throughout Europe. I have been painting ever since. I have traveled to Saint Petersburg Russia Riga Latvia working for a Baltic Airlines with the help of Finnair. I was living in Cairo and got work painting in the Middle East, doing paintings in Saudi Arabia, and Cairo, Egypt. I am a little different than other Artists in my selling. I started by doing in Galleries Las Olas Blvd in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and Windsor in England. Being a cityscape artist I learned quickly that Galleries were good but working with clients in Business was a better avenue. I met a man named Lenny Winegrad at an Art Show in Fort Lauderdale his Miami office, work with International Airlines that sent tourists to Europe and Israel. I did Posters of Israel and Europe and Special Limited Edition painting for First Class passengers of London Famous double-decker buses for a Japanese Airlines and Scandinavian Airlines "They say it better to be lucky, it's true I have and my father lived 99. I have had a great life, I moved back to my Hometown in Stroudsburg, Pa in the Pocono's Mountains about an hour from New York 1987. I have been painting ever since I am 76 now and I don't feel my age because I hang out with good artists one of my best friends is an Andrei Protsouk and his artist son Dennis. They keep me young, I have been painting Key West, Paris, Florence, Italy and enjoying life.
