Today we’d like to introduce you to Eileen Seitz
Hi Eileen, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
I Love COLOR. I love details, I love movement, I love Spirit. Drawing and Painting are ways I breathe LOVE in and out. This is what I came here to share, bringing my artwork to others on paper and canvas.
I was born and raised in New York City on the island of Manhattan. God showed me my gifts when I was 8 years old. My 4th grade teacher told my mom “Your daughter knows composition”. My mother heard my teacher as she intuitively understood color and music. She saw that I was able to sit quietly for hours and gave me all kinds of art materials to work with at home. I was a very introverted child and I would channel my deep feelings onto paper and canvas.
I was different and understood spirit. When I was 12 yrs. of age my mom sent me to Saturday morning art class in Manhattan where I learned the basics. Drawing, perspective, proportions, shading and composition. At 13 yrs. of age, I created my oil painting called “Red Barn”. I entered a New York City Street Art Festival and won “first place and a blue ribbon”. At 16 years old, a New York City art dealer bought my oil painting of two immigrant gardeners wearing yellow rain slickers and hats. In high school my art teacher gave me extra attention and published many of my drawings in the school magazines. I loved art so much that I started to take art classes on Saturday mornings at Pratt institute in Brooklyn. When it came time to apply for colleges, I applied to Pratt Institute and was accepted. I majored in Fine Arts where I explored 2-dimension, oil painting, watercolors, etching, engraving, silkscreen, and book making. I learned that painting was what I wanted to do more than anything else at that time.
Manhattan, New York City, is a concrete jungle, filled with high rises. Living in Stuyvesant Town close to the east village until about 17 years old I experienced the four seasons. The Northern light is very different. The colors are duller, grays, greens, browns, blacks, navy blues, cranberry, sap greens, pea green and hooker green. Darker colors, sad withdrawn colors. The sunlight is further from the equator, and did not match what I felt in my heart. It was perfect growing up there, for I was learning other things in Manhattan, about the bigness of humanity and cultures from all over the world. This opened me up to the world travels that would come later. I had to move away from this northern light but I did not know where I was headed. At 18 years old I was invited to go to the Caribbean with two surfer musicians and everything changed. Every pore of my body and soul opened. Merging with the healing energy of tropical island colors, the plants, the land, the water, the people. fruits, flowers, birds, fish, and different unique architecture. I was reborn. I knew right then and there I was home in the tropics of our beautiful green and blue planet. It was the closest I had come to being in the SUN LIGHT.
In 1972 I left Manhattan. Since then, everyday Spirit, grabs me with its inspiring messages. A telephone to God speaks to me with its whispers. Clear, direct words and visions the I AM TELLS ME what to draw and paint. I never make sketches. I just start and Spirit tells me what is next. Then I go out looking for what attracts me and I sit and draw and then continue onto some other imagery. The composition comes to life on its own. Then the colors come. Color is visible energy. There are more colors than 7 colors of the Rainbow than we were taught. Where the colors are placed and the shades and tones create music on a two-dimensional surface.
In the Tropics, nature is rich, plants are abundant and humongous. The largeness of the leaves and textures in the jungle capture and captivate me. The sweet tropical breezes permeate my soul as they touch my skin. This is what I bring to the viewer in my paintings. The people who see my work, want to live in my paintings. I look upon the wonder of the unfolding Creation and I see how we are reflections of this same beauty. Every day it is different. It never dies it just changes. I feel the plants heartbeat, I hear them breathing and growing. Aqua’s, turquoise, pinks, peaches, blues, purples, violets, lime greens, blue greens, periwinkle, lemon yellow, oranges, brilliant reds, and more. All my senses are exuberant, and laughter fills me and pours out into my paintings. Nature just knows how to blend and contrast its form and colors on the earth as it does in the etheric. Now what do I with this “information” these vibrations? This is where the magic comes together, guided by spirit, it is about placement of lines, form and colors that create harmony, joy, peace, calm, excitement and wonder to the viewer.
When I go to Europe and paint, I use a different palette. Its not the plants and trees, I see and feel, but different colors. I am enthralled once again, attracted to the architecture. The light is different and architectural history is so full and rich with character. I love traveling and painting there. Detail, Detail, Detail I see everywhere in the cities. Listening to classical music in Europe also brings me a totally different color palette.
Since 1968 I began my travels in and out of USA. St. Thomas, Puerto Rico, Key West, Mexico, hitch hiked through ALL of Central America, Panama, Colombia, Eleuthera, Nassau, Harbor Island, St. Marten, Jamaica, Tortola, Josh Van Dyke, Maui, Kauai, St. Lucia, Martinique, Guadeloupe, Dominica, Anguilla, Barbados, Trinidad, Tobago, Bastimentos- Panama, Bocas del Torre- Panama, Portugal, Spain, England, Brussels, Amsterdam, Switzerland, Italy, France, Germany, Alaska, Tavenui-Fiji, Bega-Fiji, Oahu, Hawaii, Sicily, Corfu, Montenegro, Dubrovnik, Easter Island, French Polynesia, Fakarava, Bora Bora, Moorea, Tahiti, Raiatea, Rangiora, Nuka Hiva, and Canada.
In 1981, I moved to Coconut Grove, FL because of the tropical trees. From here I could easily get on an airplane and go anywhere in the world.
In 1982 I began to self-publish my watercolors and oil paintings as art cards, posters, s/prints, s/n limited editions, miniprints, hand tufted wool rugs, washable floor mats, jigsaw puzzles and now printed fabrics to share it with the entire world.
For the past 60 years, my paintings have been purchased and commissioned received dozens of Awards, viewed on television and in theatre movies, printed as art festival posters and purchased for national and international hotels, resorts, hospitals, doctors’ office, cruise ships, banks, restaurants, and airports.
My intention has always been for my artwork to be on the walls of many private and public places where the masses can enjoy them.
My mission in this lifetime is to bring THE SPIRIT of GOD, Creator through my work onto paper and Canvas. To connect the viewer to the SPIRIT OF GODS LOVE within himself. For people to realize their own inner joy, peace, clarity, definition, and harmony.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
I was always ahead of many of the businesses around me. But I went with the flow and created always and in the ways that make me happy.. Customers would come and support my material needs in exchange for my artwork . I would receive, money, given foods, projects that i need to travel to in and out of USA Mainland.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know?
In my creativity i am flexible.. Opportuniites have always come with things i have never created before.
over 5 years starting in 2010 I began teaching art to guests on cruise ships. I did not seek this, it came to me, and i accepted the gift the challenge.. with the aid of spirit i was guided how to do this, explainigng to my guests to find there own inner creative spirit.
it was a great experience on 4 different cruise lines i worked and traveled to Alaska, Central America, Europe and the South Pacific. I was not paid in dollars but i was paid with room and board and traveled to all these countries which grewmy own business.
I love to design wih colors and moldings, so i am not afraid to try someting new. One year a client from St Maarteen contacted me and I was asked to bring my artwork to their 3 hotels to pick from my portfolio the images and then the mats and frames for over 19360 pictures, which were to be to decorate the rooms, suites and hallays in their hotels.
When we were finished the purchase order was like a book, of over 53 pages for my arwork over the beds and living room furniture etc in these room.
MY client showed me the large assortment of fabrics she picked, i chose the mats and moldings that complete the look.
We all worked as a team and everything came together and everyone got paid . It was a happy completed project.
Is there anything else you’d like to share with our readers?
I am free to travel wherever the client wants my artistic talents and services.
Pricing:
- Poster prints $25.00-$40.00
- Matted 16″ x 20″giclee prints $70.00
- Originial watercolors $400.00 -$7,000.00
- Custom Wool Rugs price based on colors and sizes
- My original custom designed fabrics for sale by the yard.r
Contact Info:
- Website: https://eileenseitz.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/eileenseitzart/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/eileenseitzfineart/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=eileen+seitz+fine+art
Image Credits
Eileen Seitz
