Emerging Artists | Hope Reis

Hope Reis, The Red Chairs, oil, 30 x 30.

Hope Reis, The Red Chairs, oil, 30 x 30.

This story was featured in the January 2019 issue of Southwest Art magazine. Get the Southwest Art January 2019 print issue or digital download now–then subscribe to Southwest Art and never miss another story.

Hope Reis always wanted to be a fine artist, but from her parents’ perspective, interior design was a more viable career path. “So,” says the Connecticut native, “I majored in it.” Fresh out of the Fashion Institute of Technology, she spent a few years designing commercial interiors. Then, after starting a family, she discovered a penchant for painting floor canvases. “That’s when I fell in love with painting,” says the artist, who promptly signed up for her first oil painting class at Silvermine Arts Center in New Canaan, CT. “I was completely hooked,” she says.

Reis started out painting flowers from life before expanding into other genres. After moving to Florida in 2000, she added beach scenes to her repertoire, and on occasion, she also completed small interior studies. But lately one prominent focus has emerged in the artist’s impressionistic oeuvre: large-scale, lustrous interiors where colorful fabrics, glowing lamps, and elegant furniture all vie for viewers’ attention. Having traded small studies for a larger format (some of her interiors today measure up to 30 by 30 inches), Reis says she feels more empowered to explore her creative instincts. And despite sizing up, she still prefers painting from life. “For the first time in all my 18 years of painting, I feel like I’m really painting,” she says.

Some of the artist’s favorite places to paint are the historic mansions around her West Palm Beach community north of Miami. “People are inviting me to paint in their houses, and that’s really exciting,” she says. “I try to take these beautiful spaces, and all their lovely architectural detailing, and make them look lived in.”

Find the artist’s work at Ella Walton Richardson Fine Art, Charleston, SC; Sheldon Fine Art, Naples, FL; and Susan Powell Fine Art, Madison, CT.

This story was featured in the January 2019 issue of Southwest Art magazine. Get the Southwest Art January 2019 print issue or digital download now–then subscribe to Southwest Art and never miss another story.

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