ABOUT

 

  

Heather Englehart invites you to explore her unique painting style. Her process has evolved out of her training as an architect where she learned to work in a cylindrical mode rather than a linear one. As an architect, Heather designs the walls and structures of buildings, line-by-line and layer-upon-layer. As a painter, Heather works in much the same way, experimenting with the lines of an image (both by hand and computer) and then manipulating layers of paint to build the image into a new creation.

Heather grew up in South Dakota and now lives in New Orleans. Lifescapes, aims to make familiar objects speak in a new and different voice to the viewer. The face of a friend or a French Quarter scene is painted, often in monochromatic tones, so that light, not color, highlights features and images. The finished painting offers the viewer a chance to look anew at pictures that might seem ordinary or routine.

Heather stretches her own canvas, making them strong enough to take several layers of gesso and from time to time the added weight of silica sand. Paint is added to the stretched canvas in layers of color, moving from light to dark then back to light again. Images emerge from shapes built over these layers, until the finished product highlights new aspects of the original image. On display, Heather s Lifescapes beckon to viewers, as each piece captures the moment s beauty and energy.

When asked about her painting, Heather says, both painting & architecture require an watchful eye and creativity, however, architecture is very precise and rule-regulated; painting for me is the opposite. When I paint, rules fade away and precision is optional. When you look into my soul, you see my art, and when you look into my art, you see a bit of my soul.