We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Sonja Caywood a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Sonja, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Are you happier as a creative? Do you sometimes think about what it would be like to just have a regular job? Can you talk to us about how you think through these emotions?

I’ve wanted to be an artist for as long as I can remember, but there are often many years of toil between wanting to do art full-time and actually earning a living on your creativity. Knowing I was meant to make art, but being realistic about how to help support our family financially, I did art on the side of working “regular jobs” for 24 years. Those years spent longing for studio time, longing to do what I’m doing now, developed in me the work ethic and discipline I would need for life as a professional artist. Had I been handed my big studio and time to paint when I was in my 20’s, I wouldn’t have appreciated it or utilized it as efficiently as I did after wanting it for so long; I might have been discouraged at the work it actually takes. I might be doing something completely different today.

When we’re young, we assume we’ll sell a great painting and become “professional” (famous and financially secure); we picture ourselves attending openings and being known, but the road to “professional” is often much more winding, long and bumpy, and we are often humbled along the way. I advise young artists to be prepared to love the idea of their future art career enough to work regular jobs until they have the discipline, a healthy savings account to withstand the dry times, and an art-buying clientele to support going “full-time.”

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I grew up a cowgirl, ranching with my family in the forgotten ways, like you see in Charles M. Russell paintings. Summers on our roundup wagon, away from modern distractions, gave me opportunity to study the livestock and landscapes around me; I remember framing compositions with my hands from the saddle long before I’d ever learned it was an artist’s tool. As a small child, watching my uncle Aubry sketch western scenes out of his head was magical to me. Knowing I was interested in art, he’d carry me around my grandparents’ home for a closer look at the Russell prints on the walls.

My mom saved a drawing I did at age two. We didn’t have extra money growing up, but she always made sure I had pencils and crayons and paper. I still have the orange wooden pencil box and the paintbrush from my very first Prang watercolor set from first grade. My dad always told me I could do anything I wanted in life if I worked hard at it.

I love animals, and they’ve always been my chief interest in art-making. I enjoy portraying animals in a way that captures a viewer’s interest unexpectedly; people often notice an emotion in an animal portrait that they can relate to, and they connect- the creature suddenly has personality and value beyond what they see en masse in a pasture along a highway. My purpose in painting animals is not to earn a living or decorate someone’s wall, those are byproducts of “capturing” an essence of a living being that changes a person’s assumptions about that creature.

I may lack formal training (three semesters at the local junior college in the 1980’s) but I think to be “self-taught,” one would have to live in on a desert island. I’ve taken classes and workshops. I had such an amazing high school humanities teacher that while in Europe 20-years later, people assumed I was a humanities teacher myself. Artistic skill can definitely be learned, but I believe natural talent is a gift from God, the greatest Creator and the best Instructor.

Over years of practice, my style’s developed from a striving after realism to painterly, colorful strokes that become abstracted shapes and values as you approach a painting closely. I want my paintings to work on two levels: Across a room, I want them to appear realistic, but I absolutely love seeing a viewer’s face as they get closer, and the components of the piece separate into shapes of values and colors. This dichotomy is lost in photos of my work, as it only represents a middle ground between the two. A former college art professor said I should never share photos of my work because they fail to express the dynamic of experiencing my work in person.

I’m amazed and honored that the little cowgirl with her pencils and paints has been blessed to travel the world, and to have my art in corporate and private collections in thirteen countries on six continents. But greater than all that is the feeling I get when something new, unexpected and unique happens on what was a blank canvas, and when someone recognizes something beyond what my clumsy hands could create on their own. This is why I paint.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

Art was on the back burner as my husband and I raised our kids and worked a lot. In late 1996, we lost our third and final child, a baby girl, during labor. The pastor who married us told me in the hospital that maybe one day I’d make paintings because of her, that she will have brought me that. In my grief, I dove into painting as therapy. Art was a place in this unpredictable world where I felt I had some control, and the act of painting was like praying to me; it connected me to God. Pastor Bob was right: our lost-to-this-life daughter did bring me to painting pictures. Losing her brought me to fully surrender to the Lord, and enduring that painful tragedy put me on the path I’m on now.

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

I always wanted to be a stay-at-home mom, but we never felt we could afford it. When I was working two jobs, running kids everywhere, playing hockey and taking care of our horses, there was little time for art or family time. I sold our horses and quit hockey to prioritize time for art. The most rewarding aspect of my being an artist today is that I have time with my kids that I unfortunately didn’t have when they were growing up. I can drop everything and help a friend or family member. Art has allowed my husband and me to travel to places we’d never see without an art show opening to attend. We’ve made friends from diverse places.

Although I loathe speaking in public, teaching 2-hr, introductory acrylic classes helps me to impart my love of painting and also to show people that anyone can paint; it’s not an exclusive club and it doesn’t have to fit a criteria to be enjoyable. People learn it’s more about process than end results, and they learn to love the process of creating. I learn a lot by teaching. I’m grateful for this journey and honored you wanted to visit about it. Thank you.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.sonjacaywood.com
• Instagram: sonjacaywoodart
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/sonjacaywood.art
• Youtube: Sonja Caywood Fine Art (sonjacaywoodfineart6157). (one day I’ll get this running)