Carol Heiman-greene
Laguna Beach award winner
Artist Carol Heiman-greene grew up in the suburbs of Los Angeles, but always loved wildlife. As a child she watched Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom and looked forward to vacations in the Sierras and sometimes Lassen Park. In college she studied illustration, but after earning her bachelor’s degree and finding that illustration art was being taken over by computers she shifted her gear toward fine art.
“I made the decision to go into fine art wildlife and paint what I love most,” she says. “I have found my background in illustration to be very beneficial to my works in terms of composition, color and storytelling. I continue to push myself in terms of technique and have a lot of fun.”
The biggest difference that Heiman-greene has found in her fine art paintings versus her illustrations is that she doesn’t have to be as idealized. Rather, she can paint the animals “in all their imperfect perfection,” she explains. “A mustang stallion’s scars tell the story of his life as does his tangled mane.”
Heiman-greene works from her own reference photographs and has found it thrilling to be out in nature and capturing the beauty and glory of her subjects. “I do enjoy drawing in the field, but painting in the field is problematic due to a condition that has left me with retina damage in my left eye,” the artist shares. “So, I take everything back to the studio to see what my next painting will be. It is very important to me that I capture the character and spirit of my subjects, bringing them to life so that my collectors feel that perhaps they were out in nature with me.”
In regards to her technique, Heimangreene relies on classical techniques while elevating the work to today’s contemporary world. She even calls her style “Old Masters with a New Twist.”
She explains, “I paint in oil using the traditional lean to fat technique, layering to create depth and dimension. The focal area of the painting will have the thickets and richest application of paint to draw the viewer in. I like to think of how Rembrandt would use certain details to highlight…it is certainly something to aspire to. My new twist is depicting the wildlife portraiture of North America, hoping to inspire conservation of our natural wonders.”