About The Artist

Some of you may know me under the name "SevanSeas". It was meant to be a playful combination of my name, Sydney Evans, and the phrase "sail the seven seas", which was a nod to where I started with my seascape paintings.

After 5 or so years of trying to explain to people how to find my shop online ("SevanSeas... Oh like my name 'S Evans' plus ... 'seas'... No with an 'a' instead of an 'e'..."), I decided to forsake clever puns and go with what I've got.

I would say I'm primarily recognized for my moody, large scale coastal art in hues of deep blues, greens, and cool grays. Especially my ocean storm clouds. My memories of growing up in the Tidewater area of Virginia and vacationing in the Outer Banks of North Carolina strongly influence my subjects and style.

However, I decided a long time ago I wasn't going to limit myself simply for the sake of a brand! Since starting my business, I've branched out into ink and watercolor illustration, portraits, wildlife, and anything that piques my interest.

I credit my love of painting and drawing to my grandmother, Sandra Cowley. We still do festivals and shows together yearly.

Everything in my shop is painted and printed and packed from my home studio with help from my husband, Dylan, and with strict oversight and quality control by our greyhound, Tesla.

 SUSTAINABILITY & ETHICS

Sustainability and ethical practices are important to me as a person, and they are important to me as an artist. I am continually trying to find new ways to minimize my impact on the environment and human health and to protect human rights. That being said, there is a lot of room to improve, and I’m always looking to take my art and my business to the next step.

Step one is transparency.

I’ve listed a few of the ways I’ve tried to increase the sustainability and ethics of my art below, as well as a few of the areas I’d like to change. I am always appreciative of advice! If you have any recommendations for retailers or practices, please reach out to me on the contact page.

Sourcing

I have been so happy with Gamblin. Not only do they make high quality paints and mediums (in the USA!), but they have a commitment to health and the environment. Moving forward, I plan to purchase all of my oil paints and mediums through Gamblin. Click the button above to see more information about their specific products and initiatives on their Studio Safety page.
For gouache and watercolor I use a combination of Winsor & Newton, M. Graham & Co, and Holbein, with my preference being for M. Graham & Co.  I also use watercolor brushes from Winsor & Newton.

W&N sustainability initiatives primarily focus on water conservation and decontamination for processing in their facilities. 

M. Graham & Co has a commitment to solvent-free paints, manufacturing, and cleaning. They use renewable energy and buy carbon offsets, and they purchase equipment that would otherwise be decommissioned.

I chose Holbein based off of reviews and recommendations, but they have no sustainability statements. I'll likely try out a different maker when I next purchase gouache.
More recently I’ve added pigment inks to my repertoire, and I have been buying Dr. Ph. Martin Bombay India Inks. They are gorgeous. Full size inks come in glass bottles, minimizing plastic. Their inks are manufactured in the USA.
Their website states they are part of the Ahlstrom-Monksjo Group, which is a “world leader in sustainable and innovative fiber solutions”. They are FSC-certified. The Arches button above links to their website, from which you can also navigate to the Ahlstrom-Monksjo Group sustainability initiatives page.

I recently discovered that it is easy to make your own paper at home from your own recyclables.
Making paper suitable for art? We'll see.
Making archival art paper? Doubtful. But it would be fun to experiment.
I was really struggling to find high quality canvas that was both affordable and sustainable, when I stumbled across this brand. Their business is family owned and operated in the United States, and they source the wood for their frames from renewable forests.

My watercolor canvases are purchased from big box stores (like Michael's or Blick) because these are the only places I've seen them.
For all the cards and prints I make myself, I use Red River Paper products. When I found them, their site stated that they partner with paper manufacturers globally and create the finished products in their plant in the United States.

However, the last time I checked their site, there wasn't much information or transparency. I may be looking for a new brand soon.
Canon was a top pick when I was researching options for printing high quality art from my own home. I ultimately selected a Canon printer and continue to use Genuine Canon dye-based inks. Through my sustainability research into my suppliers, I learned they have an ink cartridge recycling program. I hope to take advantage of this program if possible, but have not had the opportunity to do so yet. I have a huge stack of empty ink cartridges I've been saving for this purpose, so maybe now is the time!

​They appear to have basic corporate responsibility programs in place, but I do not know the environmental impact or the success of these types of initiatives. They publish an annual report on company sustainability initiatives. It can be reached through the above Canon button.

Packaging & Shipping

Packaging is a work in progress.

Currently, I am using rigid cardboard mailers to send out small prints and cards to stay as plastic free as possible. I just switched to kraft mailers and envelopes for my cards in the hopes that these are better in some regards.

I save good quality packing filler when possible to use when packing my art to ship out. To date, I have not had to purchase any plastic filler. I save my own shipping boxes and "rescue" good quality cardboard from my apartment recycling station and cut my own boxes to size.

My biggest pitfall - cellophane sleeves. All of my cards and prints are sold individually packaged in clear plastics sleeves. These sleeves are removed and discarded almost immediately by the buyer as soon as they hang or frame a print or send out the card. However, I’m struggling to find an alternative. While paper sleeves would be feasible for shipping to online customers, plastic sleeves keep my art protected from rain, water, dust, and fingerprints during shows and travel and even during storage at home.

While I really don't see a good alternative for events and markets, I may move away from the cellophane sleeves for online orders and use glassine sleeves instead. I have yet to make this move.
Golden State Art is the supplier I’ve used in the past to package prints with mats and backing for my shows. I was not able to find any information about their products or supply chain in regards to ethics and sustainability.

I have not found a sustainable supplier for mats and matboard that is affordable. With this being the case, I am shifting towards packaging with backer board only to lessen the materials and size of my prints for shipping.

Platforms

I sell on Etsy for a variety of reasons, but I was even more committed after I found out that they had sustainability initiatives in place. As listed on their Impacts page, Etsy is the first major online shopping destination to offset 100% of carbon emissions from shipping. Check out their Impacts page using the button above to find out more.
Zazzle appears to have a robust commitment to corporate responsibility. While many of these types of programs are only as effective as the company wants them to be, knowing they have a policy like this clearly and publicly in place puts me more at ease. Take a look at their stance on supply chain transparency and child labor on their Corporate Responsibility page using the button above.

I only offer a very limited number of products through Zazzle.

Frequently Asked questions


What medium do you use?

I do a little bit of everything. Growing up I did a lot of drawing with pencil and charcoal, and I learned to paint with acrylics. A couple years ago, after binging on Bob Ross reruns with my husband, I decided to try my hand at oil painting. It was love at first brushstroke! I paint almost exclusively with oil paints now, except....

When I heard about the Inktober Challenge in October 2017, I decided I wanted to play with India Ink. After researching ink, I saw how some people were adding watercolor to the mix. I just had to try it! Now I do a bit of mixed media ink and watercolor art too. Those are primarily for sketchbooks and entertainment though.

I started working with acrylics after falling in love with oils, but wanting faster drying times. I found a happy medium in Golden OPEN acrylics and mediums, which extends the working time of fast-drying acrylic paint. The texture and feel of acrylics just doesn't hold a candle to the luxury of oil and wax mediums though.

Long story short - I use a whole bunch of mediums depending on what aesthetic I am trying to create.

I struggled initially with feeling like I needed to stick to certain aesthetics and media to maintain my "brand", but that really put a limit on my creativity. I decided a long time ago that I wasn't going to limit myself for the sake of branding, sales, and money. I do what I like, and so far people love it!
What kind of training/art education did you have?

Um.... none?

That's not entirely true. My grandmother taught me informally from a very young age. I took a few classes with an art teacher (Kristina Haven - check out her work!) when I was in grade school before she moved away. I was enrolled in an art classes throughout high school as well.

I had every intention of getting a double major in college, but I quickly discovered that course load wasn't going to be feasible! I took one introductory art class, but was unable to continue as the classes required for my BA in Chemistry consumed me.

Now I primarily learn informally through experimentation and watching others.
How long do your paintings take you?

For actual active painting time, the majority of my paintings take 2 to 10 hours. Many of them are done in one or two sittings in as many layers of paint.

It really depends on the painting. For something loose and atmospheric like my storm scenes, I might finish the entire painting over the course of a few hours in one sitting. For something more detailed like a portrait, or something that I paint in multiple layers, I may take multiple sessions and 10 hours or so of active painting time.

Keep in mind - this does not include research, sketching, palette prep, planning, drying, CLEANING...or anything to do with actually selling the painting or creating prints of it. There is a lot of behind the scenes work.

When I do the heavily textured, palette knife paintings using oil paint and wax medium, they can take weeks to properly dry, and even longer to "cure" completely. If I'm working in layers, I sometimes have to wait days to let one layer dry before I can start the next one.

I also sometimes need resting time. I really struggle to paint and paint well when the creative juices aren't flowing. I also have a really busy schedule and a full time job outside of art. Just because a painting has a working time of 6 hours, it may be weeks between when I first started it and the time I finally called it done!
How do you price your paintings?

I've agonized and agonized... and AGONIZED over this. And I changed my mind at least a dozen times early on. I spent a lot of time researching how other artists price their work.

Some price per square inch, but I found a few problems with that. First of all, smaller paintings end up significantly under priced and large paintings end up entirely too high! Additionally, two pieces of the same size would cost the same, even if one painting took four times as long and was significantly more detailed. This pricing scheme seems to only work well for artists working in approximately the same size and time constraints.

Other artists simply charge an hourly rate, but I found that if I did a really large painting in a shorter amount of time, I wasn't being appropriately compensated for my materials (which can get very expensive for larger sizes).

I've finally come up with a pricing scheme that both properly compensates me and keeps my prices consistent across all my pieces.

First I start by assigning a base price simply based on the size of the painting. This ensures that the cost of my materials, etc. are covered. After that, I add on an hourly rate based on active painting time. Researching, sketching, drying time is not accounted for in the price.

Over time, I increase my hourly rate with my experience and reputation as an artist.

I'd love to know how other artists are pricing their work! Feel free to contact me with your methods and advice from the Contact page.