Meet Kristen Hess of Kristen Hess Art in Fort Worth

Today we’d like to introduce you to Kristen Hess.

So, before we jump into specific questions about the business, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
I painted my first oil painting as a freshman in high school, developing my skills, techniques and experience so that by the time I graduated, I had several art awards and my first commissioned pieces. My art teacher to this day is one of my biggest cheerleaders. Art had always been one of my biggest passions, but she helped me see for the first time how it could be even more than just a passion that I keep to myself.

Through an internship, local artist mentors, private home shows, and much practice, I started to develop a style that captures what draws my eye in nature, namely light and color. My paintings are impressionistic and representational, using my artistic license to set a certain mood with the effects of light or the movement of brushstrokes.

Before I started painting, I always had a sketchbook and pencil with me. I loved drawing detailed images in graphite and charcoal. My attention to detail in drawing caused a bit of a learning curve in transitioning to the loose, free brushstrokes of impressionism. I found I loved to pick out just the right details to suggest the intricate scene without having to say all of it, leaving the rest up to the imagination of the viewer. A background in drawing was invaluable when it came to using a big, hairy, inexact paintbrush to design and portray all the right proportions on a canvas.

After college, I spent a couple years in India, where in my free time I taught painting workshops. The confidence and enjoyment the women walked away with was enough to fuel my desire to help people of any culture or status feel the joy of creating something with their own hands.

After returning, I met my future husband as we were both working on a Master’s degree at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth. He is an innovative thinker, entrepreneur, and web developer with an economics background. If that isn’t the perfect other half that an artist needs, I don’t know what is! Once we got married, Dillon tailor-made my website and has been integral in helping me organize and make the business side of Kristen Hess Art better, wider-reaching, and more efficient. We have a great system that allows me to do what I love, while he has set up easy ways to help me run a business. Today, we have been operating in Fort Worth for over a year, selling paintings from our home studio, participating in the Fort Worth Makers Pop-Up Market, and gaining much exposure from Fort Worth’s renowned ArtsGoggle festival.

Has it been a smooth road?
Most of the time, running Kristen Hess Art is smooth-sailing and fun. I never know who I will get to meet, whether at a festival or someone who has contacted me about a commission. Some of the business aspects get a little tedious, such as tracking expenses, but overall there have been no major road blocks, due mostly to my husband’s hard work and diligence. One of the biggest challenges and privileges to running my own business is that I determine how much I work and the pace at which the business grows. I love the freedom of being able to grab my paintbrush anytime I want, but it is nearly impossible to maintain the same level of inspiration and motivation each day. Most days, painting is fun, but some days it feels like work. To counter that, I turn on some instrumental music (either classical or bossa nova) and take a few minutes to look through my favorite art books to get in the mindset again.

We’d love to hear more about your business.
My oil paintings range from landscapes, seascapes, and still life’s to portraits. I love to travel, so many of my works represent scenes or faces from those adventures. I fell in love with portraits and have an ongoing series based on the first faces I ever painted. As a teenager, I spent several weeks in Brazil with my church, and adored its people and culture. After each trip, I would look through my photos and find the sweet little faces of children. I felt I could express more of their situation with my art than with my words. Some of these children grow up in pretty desperate situations, being exposed to things I had never dreamed of at such a young age. The look in their eyes is the same. It is one of dependency, injustice, the need for hope. My heart was so captivated and my life was so changed by the love they so easily gave and so desperately needed that I had to tell their story. Any time I travel now, I look for those faces in the background that do not know they are supposed to pose for a photo, but who wear a real expression.

I have been honored to paint so many portraits of families’ beautiful children over the years. The logistics of getting the right reference photographs for portraits are challenging, but it pays off when I can see from the parents’ reaction that I succeeded in capturing the sweet memory and interactions of their children. Since my own wedding, I have found a new area of interest in painting bridal portraits – some to be displayed at the wedding reception, and others as a bride’s perfect gift to her mother.

In each commission, whether a portrait or not, I want to understand what about the scene is most important to my client. Maybe it’s a feeling they get whenever they look at it, a color that evokes a certain emotion, or maybe it’s the detail they treasure. I enjoy hearing my clients talk about why the piece is so important to them so that I know how I can best represent it in an artistic way.

I get the most fulfillment in painting when I can reflect the glory of God’s creation. He is the original artist, and I can only reflect and recreate what he has already made with the imagination he gave me. Certainly not all of life is happy, so in the darker moments of life or in the face of injustices, I want to shed light and truth and hope on the situation. My own experiences have seen dark days, but hope in Jesus never disappoints.

Is our city a good place to do what you do?
Fort Worth is a great place to run a small business, and its residents and businesses are all about supporting local art. There are many art events throughout DFW, from high profile exhibits at the Kimball and the DMA, to traveling festivals, to local pop-ups hosted by popular restaurants and businesses.

If I could look for one more resource in Fort Worth, it would be some kind of group that trains artists how to be more business-minded, particularly educating them in the proper documentation requirements and tax permits, as this research can majorly slow down the launch of a new artistic business.

Pricing:

• Sample Pricing for 11×14: $375
• 16×20: $540
• 24×30: $810
• More sizes available

Contact Info:

• Website: kristenhessart.com
• Email: kristenhessart@gmail.com
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/kristenhessart
• Facebook: https://facebook.com/kristenhessart
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/kristenhessart

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