We recently connected with Stephanie Henderson and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Stephanie, thanks for joining us today. Do you wish you had waited to pursue your creative career or do you wish you had started sooner?
Halfway through my 40s, I began to paint large canvases to fill the walls of my own house after a renovation created empty wall space. I had always loved to draw, paint, and make things with my hands, but I hadn’t painted a canvas since college, when I squeezed in a couple of studio art classes as an English major.
Having worked in public relations in my 20s then raised three children as a stay-at-home mom during my 30s and 40s, I found myself at 45 with the time and a pent-up desire to paint like a fiend. Good fortune led me to be picked a gallery after about a year of painting and over the next few years I was taken on by a few more galleries and my painting morphed into a full-time career.
Looking back now that I’m in my mid-50s, I have to believe that the timing of my artistic career was perfect. I’ve been totally immersed in my work these past 10 years as my children have planted themselves in the world. I felt that my work as a mom was important when I was younger, and I’m grateful I had the opportunity to focus all my energy on them and our family life when they were young. But now, I’m grateful for every day that I get to paint from morning til night (and sometimes into the night) with few distractions. I’ve had a full life with distinctly different chapters, and this chapter as a self-sustaining painter has been an extraordinary way to experience middle age.
Stephanie, 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 a painter who works primarily in hard-edge abstraction and the study of color. I typically use acrylic on canvas or wood panels. My work revolves around bold, saturated color and how colors communicate with each other and affect the observer. My paintings contain forms that are simple, allowing the colors to express themselves without complications. I hope my work reveals focus, precision, and an insatiable appetite for evocative combinations of color. I revel in the challenge of painting perfectly clean lines freehand with a brush. I believe that color alters mood, outlook, and brings joy to life and try to channel this through my work.
How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?
The greatest pivot in my adult life came when my 27-year marriage ended and painting became my sole source of income. Painting for fun shifted to painting to pay the rent and health insurance, and it was an absolutely terrifying and empowering transition. I can say, with a ton of gratitude, that it’s been okay and even better than okay. There’s something deeply satisfying about being able to support myself completely by doing what I love. I would never have imagined when I was a 40-year-old stay at home mom that a dozen years later I would be able to live on my own with only my work to depend on to pay the bills. It’s been an amazing journey full of life lessons, good fortune, pain, and unwavering support from friends and family, and thankfully I’m still here in my studio painting every day and so grateful for it.
Do you think there is something that non-creatives might struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can shed some light?
An aspect of creative work that sometimes eludes others is that most of us creatives schedule our work just as any non-creative professional schedules their work. I work a straight 8-9 hour day, five or six days a week, so my working hours do not contain long chats on the phone, trips to the park, lunches with friends or reading magazines in a lounge chair. For me, discipline about when I work, and protecting those hours, is essential to being productive and successful.
Contact Info:
- Website: stephaniehendersonpaintings.com
- Instagram: @stephaniehendersonpainter
- Linkedin: Stephanie Henderson