Through her art, Shawna Hatton tries to capture subtle nuances of people and everyday things, bringing out their spirit through the lens of the camera.

Her photographs are part of a group exhibit through Dec. 28 at the High Studio Art Gallery in Moorpark.

Hatton lives in Fillmore with her husband, Scott, and three young children. In addition to photography, she does oil painting and mixed media and specializes in portraiture. After pursuing a career in corporate video production, graphic arts and multimedia design, she left the corporate world to stay home and raise her children.

"Just this year I started branching back out into fine art and showing my work," she said. Her husband surprised her with an early Christmas gift last year of a Canon 30D SLR digital camera, replacing her old film camera. Being able to see instant results has spurred her creativity.

The series on exhibit at the Moorpark gallery, which she calls "Reflections on the Spirit," is a departure from her portraits and was inspired by her Bible study and the books of John Piper.

"Reflections are all around us," Hatton said. She sees reflections in common objects as metaphors for God's reflected image in people.

"These become poetic, spiritual landscapes," she said.

The photographs look like abstract art but are taken from everyday life: fire reflected in the glass door of a fireplace, wood of the kitchen counter reflected in the dog's metallic dish, raindrops on a shiny BMW. One of her most popular photos, called "Beach Dreams" is actually her kids' sandbox after a rain storm.

"I enjoy capturing the subtle nuances in the world," she said. "My photographs are close-ups, typically of everyday objects that most people may not notice or take for granted.

"I don't do any digital manipulation," she said. "I know how to do all that, but it's not what I am choosing to do right now."

From the first roll of film in the camera she received as a child, Hatton has looked beyond the typical subject for her photographs. Her mother couldn't understand why she'd shoot the entire roll of film of clouds, instead of something "real."

"My parents are so literal. They don't understand abstract art," she said. "They might say, That is really nice, but what is it?'"

Hatton grew up in the Midwest.

"I always loved art as long as I can remember, and in elementary school my teachers told my parents to encourage that." She won awards for her work in high school and sold some paintings but decided to study liberal arts in college, rather than go to art school. She earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from St. Mary's College of Notre Dame in Indiana, graduating magna cum laude. She spent her sophomore year in Rome studying the work of the masters, which influenced her own work.

"That was the best year of my life until I got married and had kids," she said.

She has won awards in juried shows for her paintings and was featured as a distinguished art alumna at her college in 2007.

Hatton launched her business, KiwiCreative Photography and Design, specializing in children's portraits, mixed media drawings and paintings, about seven years ago, after her oldest daughter was born.

"What I love about portraiture is the subtle complexities of expressions," she said. "Like light and clouds, they can change in a blink of an eye. The subtlety of emotions can be seen in faces and especially the eyes, being windows to the soul," she said. "I try to capture the personality through that."

She looks for a candid shot, how one child is looking at another, for example.

"I observe more than anything else," she said. "I have them play and observe the relationship between siblings, the joy of throwing leaves at each other, the protective look of the older one."

She likes to do mixed media, sometimes combining colored pencil with paint on a photograph.

"In college, the professors would say you have to make a choice between photography or painting," she said. "But to me, they inform each other. I like to create almost paintings with my photography. My portrait paintings are in a landscape format, close cropped and painted into the background. I don't think I have to choose. The photography I do is fine art photography."

Hatton said her goal is making the spirit of something tangible.

"I can't see that aspect ever changing, even if my subject or medium does," she said. "It's a constant challenge I love."

Hours at High Studio Fine Art Gallery, 11 East High St., are 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Saturday. For more information, call 523-7957.

To see more of Hatton's work, visit her Web site at www.kiwicreatives.com.

— To recommend an artist to be profiled in this section, contact Nicole D'Amore at ArtProfiles@roadrunner.com or 405-0364.