Veronika Hart | Painting
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Q&A with Veronika
1. What is your chosen medium?
Painting
2. How did you start your career in art?
Adults in my early life (parents, siblings and teachers) recognized an early talent and encouraged me to follow my dream of becoming an artist. In the early 90s, after a career in illustration, I took an advanced oil painting class (working from live models) at the Art Student League in NYC and found my true calling. I have been working with oils ever since.
3. What informs your art?
Events, whether in my personal life or worldwide, have often inspired to begin a body of work. The beauty of my surroundings, as well as masterfully rendered artwork seen up close in exhibitions or in art books has motivated me. I seek criticism, but also understand its limits, absorb information through reading, listening and in general keep an open mind to the world around me.
4. What jobs you have worked other than as a professional artist?
I once was hired to draw on camera as a stand in for the actress Annette Bening in the movie “In Dreams”, with director Neil Jordan.
5. What questions do you ask yourself when starting to work?
Over the years I have come to realize that when I’m about to begin a new series with a specific idea in mind, that I don’t limit myself with too much control and direction, because at the initial stage of a painting, unplanned abstractions may lead to seeing more interesting shapes and opening my mind to ideas that I would otherwise have missed.
6. Do you have a quote that’s important to you displayed in your studio? If so, what is it?
“Try, try and try again” by my son, Ian Hart
7. Which artist (living or not) would you most like to invite for dinner? What would you serve?
Dexter Wimberly, (Independent curator of some of today’s leading artists). Perhaps I would invite him for brunch and serve margaritas of his choice!
8. What has been your most unusual request for your art?
When I found myself auditioning for the role of a stand-in (for Annette Bening) portraying a deranged artist, and I was asked to draw the soles of a man’s shoes mid stride seen from a worm’s eye view!! ( Try doing that with no prior notice!)
9. What music are you listening to these days?
A mix, mostly soft vocals…
10. What is on your nightstand?
Photos of my kids, The book American Dirt and a whole lot of junk that has no business being there (Thanks for reminding me to clean it up!)
“Molded by a blend of African and Western culture, and using oil on canvas, I strive to build aesthetic tension and engage the viewer with visual narratives of our contemporary life.
With each painting I’m challenged anew to attain not only technical virtuosity, but also interesting conceptual content. Composition is the cornerstone of my work. I spend time contemplating diagonals, movement, and light before I begin.
As a painting develops, through interplay of figurative accuracy, abstraction, whimsy and chance brushstroke, I invariably get lost in the process in a quest to find that perfect yet elusive sweet spot, the one that brings balance and meaning to the whole”
About Veronika
I was born and raised on an isolated farm without electricity or indoor plumbing in Tanzania. From early childhood years to the present, drawing and painting have been my passions. I attended Art College in Germany, immigrated to the USA and New York.
Living in NY, I worked as a commercial artist and was a member of the Society of Illustrators. In 2007 I moved to Hendersonville, NC.
My interpretations stem from a childhood shaped by my European heritage and African lore. I explore parallels and contradictions, melding and overlapping man and beast, contemplating diagonals, movement, and light. Recent work focuses on today’s challenges while celebrating the beauty of our shared humanity.
I have a BFA and have studied at the Art Student League of NYC under realist painter Peter Cox from 1991 -1994. I have sketched on camera for film director Neil Jordan. Over the years I have won several “Best in Show” awards plus 12 distinctions and have been featured in numerous publications.