My eyes
stay wandering.
Collecting beauty
as if it's mine
to keep.
Since I was a little girl, I've often felt like I was in a world of my own. My imagination created so much glee around the simple things that many never notice. I found joy in the rusting of an old antique nail, beauty in the intricacy of flowers and deep curiosity in old tethered wooden structures I saw on the daily.
"Belizean born, British, Jamaican and Indigenous roots vibrating through a Caribbean soul."
A child between
worlds — who found
beauty in the gap.
I grew up in Belize as the multiracial child of a Kriol mother and a Scottish father. I didn't always look like the people around me — not even my family, besides my brother of course. I had mom's features but everything else about me was all but 'Belizean'.
But Belizean I am. Growing up on the southside of Belize City, with the influence of Caribbean culture made me a connoisseur of everything that held shapes, light, nature and the human experience.
"Most times, an image, a moment or a face will lock me in so deeply that I damn near run to a canvas and pour my everything into it."
My art is inspired, never calculated. When it calls out to me, I answer. My only desire is to listen more.
This is why I paint. It beckons me to my canvas and in those rare and precious moments, I surrender to the yearning within.
She was sitting
on a septic tank.
I saw a queen.
It was market day in Punta Gorda — the southernmost district of Belize. And there she was. An elder, dark-skinned Kriol woman, sitting and waiting for the bus. Straw hat. White polka dot dress. Gold earring catching the light. A woven bag at her feet.
Most people walked past her without a second glance. I couldn't move.
"I love her style and her beauty — even knowing she was an older woman, I found her exquisite."
I learned more about painting using her as my muse than in any formal lesson. And when it was done, my mother looked at it and said — "The Waiting."
That name. That painting. That woman on a septic tank on market day. That is everything my art is about — the extraordinary hidden inside the ordinary, waiting for someone with the right eyes to find it.
Not quite realistic.
Not quite abstract.
Entirely intentional.
My work sits in the space between what something looks like and what it feels like. Even having studied visual communications, painting has always been more intuition than instruction for me. I can take a year away from the canvas and come back knowing something new — like the understanding was always there, waiting.
I see art everywhere. All day.
These are the things that make me run to a canvas.
Faces & Eyes
The human face is a universe. I could paint eyes for the rest of my life and never run out of things to say.
Caribbean Life
My culture is so rich and full of magic. I have been chasing it my whole life.
Old Wooden Homes
There is more history in a creaky Belizean wooden house than in any museum. I paint what I don't want the world to forget.
Women in Their Power
The way a woman's hips move. The quiet strength in how she holds herself. Women have always been my muse and my mirror.
Nature & Living Things
I spoke to trees before I knew anyone else did. Nature is the original artist and I am her student.
The Human Experience
Why we do what we do. What we feel but can't say. The beautiful, messy, sacred business of being alive.
About Jeannie Shaw
Who is Jeannie Shaw?
Jeannie Shaw is a Neo-Expressionist figurative artist and content curator born in Belize, with British, Jamaican and Indigenous roots. She studied at the Art Institute of Fort Lauderdale and has been painting for over 30 years. Her work explores faces, identity, the Caribbean experience and the beauty of the human condition — painted in acrylic on canvas, always from intuition, never from formula. She is also the founder of Nourish Me Sweetly, a wellness blog for women.
What is Jeannie Shaw's art style?
Jeannie's style is Neo-Expressionist Figurative with a Caribbean Diaspora voice. Her work sits between realism and expression — rooted in the human face and figure, but driven by emotion, color and intuition rather than photographic accuracy. She is drawn to eyes, women in their power, old Caribbean wooden homes and the play of light on real people in real moments.
Where is Jeannie Shaw from?
Jeannie Shaw was born in Belize City, the child of a Kriol Belizean mother and a Scottish father. She has Belizean, British, Jamaican (West African) and Indigenous ancestry — a heritage she describes as "Belizean born, British, Jamaican and Indigenous roots vibrating through a Caribbean soul."
What is "The Waiting" by Jeannie Shaw?
The Waiting is one of Jeannie Shaw's most significant paintings — an acrylic on canvas portrait of an elder Kriol woman in Punta Gorda, Belize, painted from life observation on a market day. The woman was sitting and waiting for a bus. Jeannie was struck by her quiet dignity and exquisite beauty. The painting was named by Jeannie's mother and represents the core of Jeannie's artistic vision — finding the extraordinary in the everyday.
How can I buy Jeannie Shaw's art?
Jeannie's art is available as fine art prints in multiple sizes and as instant digital downloads at jeannieshaw.com. A small number of original acrylic on canvas works are also available — contact Jeannie directly to inquire about originals.
Own a piece of the way
Jeannie sees the world.
Every print carries 30+ years of looking, feeling and finding beauty
in the places most people walk right past.