Leah Wiedemer . Florida . waow
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“ It is a journey…”
Women Artists of the West
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Leah Wiedemer
Every artist will tell you that they have loved to draw from the time they could hold a crayon. I’m no different.
I remember when my cousin, a couple of years my junior, won an art award in his elementary school. It was then that I decided a real artist was some sort of phenom. Not something I was born to. It didn’t stop me from drawing, but it did make me think a career in art was not something in my future.
When I was about ten or eleven, my dad ‘hired’ me to do a panel cartoon for his newsletter that he wrote. It was for a hunting and fishing organization he belonged to. That was my first art job and I loved it.
Several years, marriage, and two children later I took a watercolor class at the local art school. I was hooked. I immediately and naively applied for a job hand painting designs on leather gift items. For some reason he gave me a chance and ended up hiring me. During this time I participated in a number of well established art festivals all over my state. I did well in the festivals, but the stress of dealing with wind, rain, and watercolors in the weather convinced me to go in another direction.
A couple of years later I applied to and got a job as a mural artist. I worked hard and learned a lot. Enough in fact to start my own mural company. Things were going great. I had a lot of clients due to word of mouth and several high end interior designers. In spite of that I eventually began to feel dissatisfied. I had learned a lot of tricks to paint quickly, and a lot about brush control, and color mixing. But I didn’t feel that it was making me a better artist. In fact I thought it was beginning to adversely affect the skills I did have. So I began to shift away from mural painting to explore other mediums and try to hone my skills. I was asked to illustrate a series of children’s books which I thoroughly enjoyed. And eventually illustrated a wordless book by the same author warning children and their families about the dangers of child trafficking. I tried my hand at pastels and sidewalk art and did a six week gig at Walt Disney World painting Disney characters on the sidewalk with soft pastels.
At last I decided to explore oil painting. I muddled along on my own for a couple of years experimenting and trying to figure out how to handle this new medium. Then by taking online classes I began to see some real progress. During this period I got a job as a decorative painter for a national restaurant chain.
A downturn in circumstances lit an artistic fire in me where I threw myself into doing whatever I had to do to improve and become competitive.. So, I studied, practiced, and learned as much as I possibly could. I continue to study and practice, and try to improve. And I’ve seen progress. I’ve had paintings accepted in several national shows including the Oil Painters of America, American Impressionist Society, National Oil and Acrylic Society, and Richeson Art competitions. I still paint for the restaurant chains, and work a print on demand business, as well as teach the occasional class or workshop.
Women Artists of the West
Oil Painters of America OPA
NOAPS
