We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Helena Weber. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Helena below.

Helena, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. We’d love to hear about when you first realized that you wanted to pursue a creative path professionally.

I was a creative kid, like many artistic people. As a kid I loved to draw, paint, create crafts, paint rocks, etc. etc. As I grew up and boys entered the picture, a lot of that got pushed aside. And with adulthood came a very uncreative job as a legal assistant in a law firm, and soon after that, marriage and a child. One Christmas, my husband got me a sewing machine, and I don’t think he realized what a can of worms he was opening up! I started making clothing for my little girl, which transformed into designing children’s clothing and taking orders for bespoke clothing. From there, it eventually evolved into painting with watercolor, then acrylics and then oils. And then clay came into the picture, where I started sculpting dolls and sewing tiny clothing for them. While I still love to sculpt, I typically go through phases of just painting. And right now, I’m in that phase.

Helena, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I am, for the most part, self taught. I learned by trial and error and by reading art books. I started with watercolor and moved onto acrylic and then oils. At first, my art was very geared towards animals (which I love). I painted animals and sculpted anthropomorphic animal dolls. As time went on, I started painting people with animals and then people with a folk tale, fairy tale, magical type vibe. Lately my art has taken a more “folk art” type style, leaning towards issues we all experience and feel. I’ve always enjoyed painting people from the past in Colonial and Victorian times. I feel the past has a special message for us and our ancestors carried much wisdom that we can all benefit from. Although right now I’m typically just painting on canvas and watercolor paper, I almost always go back to sculpting and creating other items like figurines, wooden ornaments and mini portraits. Most of my customers find something in each piece that speaks to them, and when that happens, it makes me feel complete, like my art has come full circle and accomplished exactly what I hoped it would. My plans for the future are to keep on with a kind of folk art type style, painting people and their animals from the past, together with sculpting figurines and other items. And I’m always looking to incorporate folk tales into my art as well.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

For me, one of the most rewarding aspects of being an artist is that art is everywhere. When you’re looking at the world with an artist’s eyes, almost everything can be beautiful. Colors are vibrant and it’s difficult not to notice the darks and the lights and the composition, as if you were painting the scene. One of my favorite artists to learn from is James Gurney. He sometimes paints a scene that is so mundane no one would look twice at it. But after he paints it, you can appreciate the beauty in the texture and colors, that would have once been unnoticed. Another artist I love to learn from is Sandi Hester. She never fails to inspire me and get my excited to paint again when I sometimes have a slump. One area that I really want to expand in is plein air painting. It’s exciting for me to think about painting outdoors with the elements all around me and my subject right in front of me. Typically, my paintings start from a sketch that I’ve made with an idea in my head. I transfer it over to a canvas and then paint it. I think there would be something freeing with painting from your subject that is right in front of you.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

Sometimes it can be very difficult to pursue a creative career when you’re also juggling a house, children, a husband, dogs, etc. etc. As women, we are pretty much programmed to be the caretakers and we can easily feel guilty if we feel we’ve spent too much time and effort on ourselves and not everyone else. But I’ve learned that unless the well is full, no one else can drink from it. So it’s important to try to carve some time for ourselves and not feel guilty in doing so. We and everyone else around us will benefit from it. I definitely had some difficult times when I felt I was stretching myself too thin and there were times I actually decided to give up my creative career. That would last a few months before I would feel like I was suffocating and I learned that if I just made a little time each day to pursue my art, I was much better for it.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://facebook.com/hweberart
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/helenaweberartwork
• Facebook: https://facebook.com/hweberart
• Other: Etsy: HelenaWeberArt

Image Credits

All images take by me, Helena Weber