Shawn Costello lives and paints in Maryland and Downeast Maine. Illustration, portraiture and landscape painting are all on the easel at different times. Always seeking to learn and grow in her expression, she is experimenting, reading, and trying new techniques that she can share with her students.

Shawn graduated from the Maryland Institute of Art with a BFA and received her Masters Degree in Art Education from Towson University near Baltimore. She studied at the Schuler School of Fine Art and with portrait artist, Daniel Greene.

Storybook Arts, Inc. is the agency that represents her as an illustrator. Visit: www.storybookartsinc.com

Her work has appeared in Cricket and Spider Magazines. She has illustrated two books for Albert Whitman Company, "Mommy Far, Mommy Near" and "A Bus of Our Own." Her illustrations for "A Bus of Our Own" were chosen for exhibition at the 2002 Bologna Book Fair, Bologna, Italy.

Shawn has taught art to all grade levels, in college as well as K-12, and has taught portrait workshops at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. During the summers, Shawn teaches painting workshops in Lubec, Maine, called"Summer Brushes." Students of any level are welcome to come and paint during week-long sessions. The students paint outdoors in "plein air" everyday.

In her portraits, Shawn seeks to capture an impression that conveys emotion and the spirit within. The same is true with her landscapes. In her studies of the Maine coast and its people, she works to bring a sense of light and weather as well as the personality that is unique to the area.

E-mail Shawn at 4shawnie@verizon.net or telephone (410) 489-0477