/Shawn Carlin
@oakhill_studios
Shawn Carlin
We Come in Peace!
mixed media diorama
17″ x 8″ x 8″
2022
Being a miniature artist allows me to create fantastic worlds based on my imagination but also my love of genres like Sci-fi! As a huge fan of retro science fiction, I wanted to create a scene out of those 50’s styled films with flying saucers, menacing creatures and bizarre alien landscapes! Here we see an Earthly spaceship being “greeted” by a UFO piloted by a not so friendly alien and needs to make a quick getaway before the lasers breach the rocket’s hull!
@oakhill_studios
Shawn Carlin
Primordial Swamp
mixed media diorama
10″ x 7″
2022
A prehistoric scene existing at the earliest age of the Earth! When thinking of the beginning of life, we can trace its start to the humid and organic rich environments of a primordial swamp like this! Those conditions 4 Billion years ago contributed to life as organic materials accumulated in the water and spawned the complex molecules needed to create life as we know it today! It was this notion that inspired me to create this diorama for an exhibit exploring the idea of Origin!
@oakhill_studios
Shawn Carlin
Golden Sunrise
Inspired by: Joyce Tenneson, Fork Shaped Tree
mixed medium diorama
16″ x 12″ x 17″
2025
I was really inspired by the photography of Joyce Tenneson and the magical golden qualities of her work. Since I work in 3 dimensions I wanted to explore the notion of walking into the photograph to explore the world beyond the trees and see what lies on the other side of that golden veil. I created an exact replica of the photograph and the fun is standing in the perfect location and eye line to see the full effect! It was also crucial to match Joyce’s beautiful golden palette as well! Enjoy!
@oakhill_studios
Jaimee Dunham
Shawn Carlin
The Lost Oasis
acrylic on canvas. Foam, plastic, wood, UV resin, cotton fiber, gold leaf, various dried plants and basing materials, plastic animal and human miniatures and air dry clay.
25 x 36″ painting, 11″ x 8″ diarama
2022-2024
In this collaborative work, miniature diorama artist Shawn Carlin, and painter Jaimee Dunham, explore what it means to be a rainforest. Vast, lush, and untamed. To be alive as an animal or plant. To be the clouds meeting the mountains, the water eroding rock, or the moss covering the forest floor. To be fluid or to be solid. To exist as a part of the whole. This work focuses on the power of these elements and the interdependence between them. The contrasting approaches of medium and scale expand the possible stories that could be told. Stories that regard history and ecology. Stories about exploration and discovery. These two works come together to create a visually immersive piece, and an experience that reminds us that there is always more than meets the eye.
@jaimdunham_art
@oakhill_studios
Shawn Carlin
The Forgotten Monument
mixed media diorama: wood, clay, resin, foam, various basing materials
8″ x 8″
2021
Handmade and hand-painted diorama using a wood base with sculpted steps and hand-sculpted decorative accents made of clay. Rider on horse is a hand painted resin miniature. Various basing materials were used to represent vegetation. Piece fits a fantasy genre and depicts a lost monument that has been over taken by nature. Scaled at 28mm or 1:56 scale.
@oakhill_studios