Selected Works
Available Paintings
Large-scale abstract paintings. Original oil on canvas, available for purchase and commission.
Selected Works
About
Shane Conner is an abstract painter based in Grafton, Wisconsin, working in oil on large-scale canvas. His process centers on the squeegee — dragging, compressing, and revealing layers of paint in gestures that are deliberate but never fully controlled.
The work draws from Gerhard Richter's approach to abstraction, where each pull of the blade is a negotiation between what's planned and what the paint decides to do. Color palettes are selected from scientific colormaps — mathematical systems designed for perceptual clarity — giving the work an unusual chromatic logic beneath the physical texture.
Shane's background in data science informs how he thinks about color relationships, but the paintings themselves are entirely analog: oil paint, a squeegee, and the accumulated decisions of each session.
Process
Each painting begins with a set of colors chosen from scientific colormaps — gradient systems built for perceptual uniformity. These palettes were originally designed to represent data, but they produce color relationships that feel both rigorous and alive.
Layers of oil paint are applied to the canvas, then dragged and compressed with a large squeegee. Each pass partially reveals or buries what came before. The process is additive and subtractive at once — building surface while stripping it back.
The paintings carry a tension between the precision of the palette and the unpredictability of wet paint in motion. No two pulls are alike. What remains is a record of that conversation between plan and material.
Sample colormaps: Inferno, Turbo, Glasgow
Get in Touch
Available for sales, commissions, and local pickup in the Milwaukee / Ozaukee County area. Shipping available for all works.
shane@shaneconner.comFree local delivery within 30 miles of Grafton, WI