Show Preview | Heather Arenas

Denver, CO
Art Images & Art at the Loft, August 7-31

Heather Arenas, After the Lunch Rush, oil, 18 x 24.

This story was featured in the August 2015 issue of Southwest Art magazine. Get the Southwest Art August 2015 print issue or digital download now–then subscribe to Southwest Art and never miss another story!

Art Images LLC and Art at the Loft—which are also known as Kristen Olsen’s Willoughby Galleries and are located side by side on historic South  Gaylord Street in Denver—host a solo show for artist Heather Arenas from  August 7 to 31. An artist’s reception takes place on Friday, August 7, from 5 to 8 p.m. The show title, An Artist’s Journey, represents Arenas’ travels as well as her need “to continuously learn, change, and discover new directions for my work,” Arenas says. The artist presents nearly 30 works for the show in varying sizes, many painted during or following trips in the last year to Mesa, AZ; Santa Fe, NM; Crested Butte, CO; Atlanta, GA; and Barcelona, Madrid, and Grenada, Spain. “Heather has been traveling, and many of the pieces are from points of interest in her travels,” says gallery owner Kristen Olsen. “They also show a representation of her personal journey as an artist.”

Arenas grew up with an appreciation for art. Both of her grandmothers were artists, and her parents encouraged her and supplied her with art materials growing up. She’s undertaken significant independent studies of drawing and painting and also has taken workshops with Vadim  Zanginian, Kim English, and Clayton  J. Beck III. She’s now a signature member of the Plein Air Artists of Colorado and also a member of Oil Painters of America, the American Impressionist Society, American Women Artists, the Portrait Society of America, and Women Artists of the West.

The works in the show focus mainly on the figure in the landscape, a subject she feels close to. “I feel a special connection to figurative work—it’s a way of placing myself in a scene,” she says. “I like to emphasize light and shadow to share the experience of a place I’ve been.” Her style is impressionistic with bold brush strokes, seeking to say more with her paint than could be said  with a photograph. “Heather is an extremely dedicated, talented, and hard-working artist with an expressionistic/impressionistic style, which gives the feeling of movement and atmosphere,” says Olsen. “Her subjects are striking and carry the viewer throughout the painting with motion and passion.”  —Joe Kovack

contact information
303.863.1559
www.artimagesgalleries.com

Featured in the August 2015 issue of Southwest Art magazine–click below to purchase:
Southwest Art August 2015 print issue or digital download Or subscribe to Southwest Art and never miss a story!