Watercolorist Kathy Miller shows me “Leafscapes.”
HER HAND MOVES across the watercolor painting with a familiar intimacy, stroking the sand, caressing the single green maple leaf floating among autumn-hued leaves.
I notice her ring, how the orange oval stone mimics colors in the painting below her fingertips.
I notice, too, the same hue in the bracelet that wraps her wrist, like art wraps her soul.
Watercolorist Kathy Miller speaks with a mesmerizing passion about her art, of the “Leafscape” watercolor in her hands. Mosaic. Grains of sand. Muddied waters.
Another view of that vibrant autumn watercolor.
I cannot take my eyes off this vivid watercolor, created via multiple layers of painting. Let one layer dry, then add another layer. So different from the muted, dreamy tones of most watercolors.
A sign directs visitors to Julie Free Heart’s Revisions studio.
From landscapes to florals to still lifes, Miller displayed samples of her watercolors inside Julie Free Heart’s Revisions upper level studio in the heart of downtown Northfield during the recent South Central Minnesota Studio ARTour.
Julie Free Heart talks about her bold art.
Free Heart’s paintings prove a sharp contrast to Miller’s. Defined. Bold. Single subject. Colorful feathers that to my arts uneducated mind seem modern art.
Free Heart’s “light as a feather” earrings.
There is a reason she paints feathers. The break-up of a long-time relationship. Feathers, actual feathers, floating before her at unexpected times, unexpected places. A sign that she was being carried, Free Heart says. She was meant to paint these bold, bright feathers, to celebrate, to be joyful.
A message chalked on the back of Free Heart’s studio door shares her philosophy on art.
After her marriage ended and not wanting to take back her maiden name, she chose the name Free Heart. It reflects who she is, she says. And I can see that. In her art. Hear that in her enthusiasm for painting these bold feathers, uniquely her own, uniquely carrying this artist on her journey through life and art.
More of Free Heart’s bold art.
Signage directs visitors to art studios on the third floor of an historic downtown Northfield building along East Fifth Street.
FYI: To read about other artists whose work and/or studios I viewed during the recent South Central Minnesota Studio ARTour, click here and here and here.
Please check back for one final post from a downtown Northfield art studio.
© Copyright 2013 Audrey Kletscher Helbling
Minnesota Prairie Roots 
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