- Andrew Stevens

The Masterpiece of Shane Lamb

                Art is a way of using colors and shapes, and making a masterpiece out of it.  For Shane, he’s been drawing the beautiful landscape of Alaska for most of his life.  He had a stand at the Palmer Farmer’s Market, and his paintings caught my eye.  I wanted to know the story behind Shane Lamb, and this is it.
         Shane was originally born in North Carolina, and lived there for twelve years.  After spending over a decade of his life in the lower forty- nine, his parents moved to Alaska because his dad wanted to experience the thrill of it [Alaska}.  Around then, he was learning how to draw.  He already knew how to draw with pencil, but he wanted to know how to use colors.  His first drawings were of animals and his favorite back then- cars.
         After spending time surrounded by the wild Alaskan country and growing as an artist, Shane went to Brigham Young University to continue his skills as an artist.  He earned his Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in 1990, and even though he’s been an artist for about nineteen years now, he said he’s still learning.  He’s taught students from his studio for ten years.  His advice for aspiring artists is, “draw and paint all the time, and show their work to the public”.
         Shane’s drawings are based off of the animals and landscape of Alaska.  To get the ideas for his drawings, he looks at pictures of Alaska he has seen, and also from his travels.  He has been from northern Alaska, all the way down to Tuxekan.  His favorite animals to draw are caribou and wolves.  He has even painted Denali from visiting the park, and from looking at pictures.  Shane has painted over one- hundred works in his career, and his painting, “Where Men and Trains Seem Small,” was put in the Anchorage Museum of History.  His favorite painting, he said, was his latest one.  He owns two galleries, and his art has been featured in ten others.
         The man that inspired Shane was Robert Bateman.  Shane first saw his works in magazines, books, and mostly in galleries.  He inspires him through the use of realism in his paintings, much like what Shane does in his own work. 
         I wanted to buy a painting of Shane’s, but I couldn’t (due to the fact that I would not have anywhere to put it).  He gave me some examples of his paintings, and I was glad I could take some of Shane home.  I hope his paintings get better with Alaska’s ever- growing beauty.