artist statement:

My paintings reflect my interest in man’s interaction with the environment, and the interplay between public space, nature and the built world. My work is greatly influenced by my career as a landscape architect. Landscape design requires both considering how people use outdoor spaces and working with pre-existing conditions, both man-made and natural.  As a painter, I am drawn to the juxtaposition of man-made and natural elements, and the interplay between the two. Responding to certain sites that might otherwise be overlooked, I want to capture the appeal and life of these settings with the vibrancy of colors that is my foundation. My paintings are a reflection on the underlying aesthetic of the places we see, and often don't see, in our world.

biography:

Heather was born in 1971 in Wayzata, Minnesota. As a child, she always was drawn to drawing and various creative endeavors, but she fell in love with oil painting in high school because the vibrancy of colors and the range of techniques that could be used.

In college, Heather majored in Fine Art, with a focus on landscape painting. She studied for a year in the south of France in Lacoste and Aix-en-Provence. There, she learned and came to appreciate the benefits of painting in plein air. Heather’s love of the outdoors and desire to be in a creative field led her to landscape architecture. She practiced as a successful Landscape Architect in San Francisco for 8 years. In 2008, Heather decided to focus exclusively on her painting, and she continues to explore her response to the built and natural landscape around her, through the medium of paint.

Heather majored in Fine Art at Colorado College and earned her Masters in Landscape Architecture at University of California, Berkeley. She has studied painting at L’Ecole des Beaux Arts through the Cleveland Institute of Art, in Lacoste, France, at L’Ecole des Beaux Arts in Aix-en-Provence, France, and at the Academy of Art University in San Francisco. She has been featured in the San Francisco Chronicle and has shown her work in France, Colorado and the Bay Area. She currently lives and works in San Francisco.

Heather's Resume (PDF Format)