For Shana Colwes, a middle school art teacher, illustrating recipes and food in watercolor is a creative side business that complements her already artistic life. How she began working in this specific medium was serendipitous. Noticing how bare her kitchen walls looked, she decided they needed some visual flavor. Searching for “kitchen art” on Etsy, she came across recipe illustrations of sweet and savory foods. With her creative background, she figured she could create her own recipe art featuring dishes she enjoys making and eating. The first one she worked on was guacamole, partly due to the vibrant green of a ripe avocado and the interesting contours of a salt shaker and jalapeño, both essential to making a flavorful guacamole. These visual elements, combined with using watercolor allowed her to control the fluid medium while highlighting the values (brightness and darkness) and the vibrancy of the ingredients.
When she showed the illustration to a friend, she was met with encouragement and her first custom order — a family favorite, biscotti and nut roll recipe. Word spread about Shana’s unique artwork and custom orders started rolling in.
Shana enjoys custom recipe requests because they allow her to incorporate personal details unique to each family. Whether it’s the cake stand used to display cookies or a treasured kitchen aid mixer passed down through generations, she strives to make the final product special. Over her seven years of creating custom illustrations, she has brought to life recipes for Latkes, Mandel bread, and most recently, a cocktail experienced during a trip to the Dominican Republic, where she even included the golf course where the drink was enjoyed.
As her watercolor skills developed, she found herself gravitating toward painting fresh ingredients like tomatoes, garlic and peppers. However, some subjects, like raw meat — especially chicken and ground beef — present more of a challenge, as they are difficult to make visually appealing.
Baked goods require particular attention, and Shana rises to the challenge with her talent for lettering. This skill allows her to replicate the various fonts on packaged ingredients while also giving her the freedom to express creativity through the recipe titles, using different lettering styles and colors. Her artwork exudes personality, reflected in the color choices, typography and overall composition of each piece.
The diversity of her work eventually led to a growing inventory of prints, motivating Shana to showcase her art at local craft fairs like the Mt. Lebanon Artists’ Market and Handmade Arcade in Downtown Pittsburgh. Through these events, she gained valuable insights about her customer base — many of whom were interested in food art but lacked the wall space for it. This realization inspired her to start using her illustrations on tea towels, a practical yet artistic alternative. “Everyone has room to hang a towel!” Shana says, and indeed, her towels have since become part of her wholesale offerings, adding a new dimension to her business.
Looking ahead, Shana has big aspirations for her art. She dreams of expanding her wholesale business and seeing her designs in major retailers. She’s also considering compiling a cookbook featuring all the recipes she has illustrated over the years. But at the heart of her work is the joy of creating one-of-a-kind illustrations that families can cherish and share with loved ones. Food often evokes core memories of togetherness, and Shana’s art provides a beautiful way to preserve those moments. Shana will continue to dream, plan, and paint from her dining room table on Greenhurst Drive, believing deeply in the value of creating personable, meaningful artwork.
You can find Shana on Etsy, [1] Instagram (@shanacolwesart) [2] or contact her directly [3] for custom inquiries.