Arts in Focus on PBS Fort Wayne is funded in part by the Community Foundation of Greater Fort Wayne.

Coming up, we'll talk with painter Hilarie Couture and Pyrographer Felicity Ratajczak.

It's all next on Arts in Focus.

Welcome to Arts in Focus.

I'm Emily Henry.

Hilarie Couture is a modern, impressionistic painter working out of her home studio here in Fort Wayne.

Her greatest passion is painting portraits with the use of live models.

Hilarie explains that her work is driven through her interactions with people.

For her, it's not about producing a photographic likeness, but more about recreating the spirit, energy and mood of the moment while simultaneously forming a connection with her subject.

Hilarie, thank you so much for having me to your studio today.

I can't.

Your work is so beautiful.

I don't really know how to even start.

I'm not going to try to describe it because I want I want to hear that in your words.

But before we get there.

When did you start painting?

Well, people ask me that a lot.

Actually, oil painting.

I just started about eight years ago.

But I've been an artist my whole life.

I mean, I started drawing when I was two.

And then, you know, it just kind of morphed into other things that were creative in my life.

And I made a living for 40 years as a hairdresser.

Oh, my gosh.

And I was an auctioneer and a realtor.

And, you know, but then I went back to college at age 55 and took a class or a course in historic preservation.

And my final project was to create a diptych, which is two pieces of art that go together.

For a wall finish.

And after I did that, my instructor said, Well, you've missed your calling.

You should have been an artist all along.

And I thought I'm still here.

Was that intimidating at all or did you just think, yeah, you know what?

You're right.

This is in me, and now I'm going to go for it.

Well, I think it was kind of a combination of things because I've always been creative, but it kind of hit home because I thought, I'm 55.

It's time to really pursue what I love and my joy and everything I've done in my life I've loved.

But I guess, you know, the the painting and drawing part had to take a backseat because I had to make a living.

Yeah.

Okay.

Tell me how you learned to create these beautiful pieces.

I mean, it's they're incredible, and I don't even know where one begins.

Well, I started drawing people at a very young age.

Actually, I drew clothes on my dad's Playboy magazine women.

That was the start of it with the purple crayon.

But I've always I drew paper dolls.

I mean, I was all I always had a connection to people.

Yeah.

And so that was just a natural thing for me to draw.

And then I also like drawing ballet dancers and horses when I was a child.

And then I became a hairdresser.

So I was creating it was kind of like sculpting because you have this mass of hair and you're making a shape that goes with that person's body type or whatever.

And yeah, and color, you know, coloring hair, the chemistry is pretty similar to painting.

And so understanding color theory and that kind of, you know, took that.

Yeah.

Do you think also that being a hairdresser and really studying people for 40 years contributes?

I mean, because I imagine as you're looking like you mentioned at the shape of someone's face and all of that, you you get a real sense.

But how do you know how to translate that?

I don't know how you get that from your head onto the canvas.

Yeah.

Well, I think really it's all about shape.

And so if you think in terms of shapes, you can create something on a 2D surface.

It has to do with how light hits form and then rendering that on on a 2D surface.

So.

I read that you really tried to capture more than just somebody's features.

You don't see eyes and a nose and you see a soul.

How do you capture that?

How do you get that to come through?

I don't really think about it.

I just you know, I communicate.

I have some kind of a relationship with my sitter or the environment or whatever.

You know, the first thing is, why do I want to paint this?

And so it's like, I don't want to paint everybody.

I see.

But certain people speak to me.

And then that's when I want to paint them.

But I, you know, in doing a commission, it's kind of interesting because people will send me photos and it's usually like digital photos because they want to surprise somebody and they don't want them to know.

And then I'll get all these photos and three photos of somebody and they all look different in each photo and it's like, okay, so which one is he?

Yes, who is this person?

Yeah.

And so that's, that's challenging at times.

But I try to pull some kind of essence out of it.

Yeah.

Okay.

I think that your process is especially unique because you prefer to draw from life or paint from life to have an actual, you mentioned a sitter.

How do you go about doing it?

First of all, I mentioned to you I couldn't sit still and you said, no, you don't have to sit still.

We just have a conversation.

How are you able to make that work?

Well, I enjoy seeing the different inflections in the facial features.

So like, you know, if you're just sitting poker face but you're a smiley or bubbly person, then I don't know if I can get that much of your spirit.

Yeah.

And I had an incident where I was painting someone and a reporter came in.

This was for another project I did.

But while the reporter was there, my sitter was talking to the reporter and I had no communication with that person.

And so I really struggled to get their image down.

I mean, just pulling something out of them.

And as soon as they left, then I was able to to bring out something from that person.

So I don't really know what it is, but I just feel like it's something it was a gift, you know, that I have that I need to pursue.

So.

I completely understand how it would be easier to understand someone's essence if they're sitting for you rather than having photos.

However, the stakes are so much higher.

Does it feel like that to you or am I making that up?

It just seems like if you have someone sitting there in front of you, there's this pressure to make it amazing rather than just looking at the photo and not having anybody watch.

Yeah, I don't know.

I guess I like the pressure in a sense.

I guess I'm sort of an adventurous type, but I just that brings to mind a time where there are a group of artists and we hired a model and she was, you know, in the model stand and then we give them breaks every 20 minutes.

So she walked around and she went from person to person easel and looked at the work.

And, you know, a lot of the artists were just mingling around and during that break time and she came over to my painting and she said, How do you know what I'm thinking in my head?

And that was just like, Woo!

You know, that's really special.

That's a real big compliment that she gave me.

So.

So do you feel that do you feel that in addition to your artistic talent, that you have that talent for reading people for for sort of capturing their essence?

I used to say I was a gypsy, but maybe a bit.

I mean, I think it stems way back to my my early childhood days.

And anybody really when you're in the crib, the only form of communication you have are people's faces and their expressions.

And so you try to pull out a meaning from all of that when you're having a, you know, a silent conversation with them.

Yeah.

So that's and then as a hairdresser, it's like a very one on one touchy feely kind of thing that you have with your client.

And I was a matchmaker for like four different hair clients because I would listen to them and I'd say, I think this guy would be good for you or Oh my gosh, yeah.

So really it has all of your life experience has led up to what I see around me.

That's incredible.

Yeah, I think art, you know, it's that thing where you don't have to be young.

I think as you get older, you gain more life experience.

And I think it all translates to your canvas.

And so it can be maybe a fuller experience.

Okay.

Now, I want to talk a little bit more about the colors.

You mentioned that it's that mixing paint is much like mixing hair color, which is wild.

But do you see it in your head first and then make it happen in terms of mixing the color?

Or do you let the color kind of dictate which comes first?

Well, I think you have to start out with local color, which is I mean, if I'm painting something representational, I will see what the color is.

And that's called local color, what you know, the color to be.

And then it depends on the color of the light or the temperature of the light that's hitting it.

And then, you know, just you have to do a lot of thinking.

So, I mean, if you're really trying to paint representational a it's it's not like you can just turn music on and zone out.

Right.

When you're painting intuitively that's different.

But so if I'm, if I'm trying to match, you know, I'll try to match.

But then because of my knowledge that I have stored up, you know, I'll do certain things to the painting to really make the color pop.

Or if I want the viewer's eyes to go to a certain area, then I know exactly what I have to do with color and value to bring the viewer to that area of the painting.

And so.

Knowing that you have such a talent for portrait work, I was interested to see that you also do such beautiful landscapes.

You do still life.

Do you have a preference?

Do you prefer to to do the portrait work?

Well, yeah.

I mean, I love painting people, but it's all about light and it's how light falls on form.

And so when I'm outside in the landscape, you know, I try to find it's not as exciting for me to paint during a gray day because I'm not really seeing like a pop of light and shadow.

Right.

But it's a challenge.

And so I like to accept a lot of challenges.

I can tell.

What is the best part about expressing yourself in this way?

When when people come up to my work and I can see emotion, you know, if they I've actually had people cry when they were looking at some of my paintings, the tears running down their face and you know that.

And I've had that experience looking at some of the master artists in the museum.

Not that I'm equating myself with any of them, of course, but.

But yeah, the you know, to see somebody emote when they're looking at your work is like the highest compliment you could get.

You do beautiful work.

And I really appreciate you taking the time to sit down with me today.

Best of luck in all your new challenges.

Thank you.

I appreciate you giving me this time.

For more information, visit H Couture Arts dot com.

I'm joined now by artist Felicity Ratajczak.

Felicity, I cannot wait to talk to you because your art is so cool and so different than anything I've ever seen.

You are a pyrographer.

Correct.

First of all, we've spoken to to another pyrographer but tell people what what that is.

I use a wood burning tool.

My particular wood burning tool has variable temperature control and interchangeable tips so that I can switch up my tool based on the effect I'm trying to create.

And my particular niche is burning on dried ganoderma applanatum bracket fungus or artist conks.

So to the lay person, to me, I came in and said, Oh my God, you burn mushrooms.

Yeah, that's what most people.

Okay.

How does one even begin that type of creative outlet?

Honestly, I think I saw the lady on Pinterest.

I believe she's from England somewhere a couple of years ago.

And I just a picture came up on my Pinterest.

She was burning mushrooms on mushrooms.

And I thought, that's really cute and I forgot about it.

Then my mom asked me what I wanted for Christmas, and I initially said Guitar lessons and then abandoned that because it would have never gone anywhere.

And I asked for a wood burning set instead.

I go on a lot of hikes, so I found these mushrooms and I had harvested one and initially I was etching on them.

The pore surface when it's in the active growth phase is soft and if you touch that white poor surface, it bruises.

So you can etch designs on it.

Hence Artist Conk.

But when you harvest one of those off the trees in that active growth phase, you have about two days for that surface to be viable.

So if I didn't know exactly what I wanted to put on it before I harvested it, I was up on a time crunch and I've got a job and kids and that wasn't working right.

So I thought, if I can burn on these, that'll give me a lot of extra time and a lot of extra time to think and plan what I want to put on these.

Okay.

So that kind of leads me to the I jumped right to the pyrography but you are an artist and have been for long before you started that particular medium.

Yes.

So tell me when you when you realized that that you were an artist.

I have always liked to draw.

My mom kept a whole box of things from as soon as I could hold a crayon, basically.

But I've always loved to draw and color, and I also do acrylic painting.

I imagine that that is especially helpful when it comes to wood burning.

Yes.

So tell me a little bit about your process.

So once you have harvested the artist conk, you you have a couple of days for it to be porous and then it's it hardens like wood.

Yeah.

The artist conk is a parasite.

It pulls the lignans from the tree.

So it's basically kind of turning itself into wood.

So I if I'm not convinced that it's dry, I let them dry out in my garage for a couple of weeks, and then I can burn on that hardened white pore surface.

I like it because I can burn at a lower temperature, which saves my tools and less heat on my hands.

Yeah.

So tell me how you go about doing a piece of art on a mushroom.

Do you sketch it first?

Do you?

I'll just let you tell me.

Yeah, it's.

It's art without a safety net.

I trace the shape of the mushroom first, and then I sketch out what I want to do.

And then I have an etching tool, which is basically a picture nail jammed into a mechanical pencil so that I can hold it.

And I sketch out the basic outlines onto the surface, and then I use a blade tool on my burner to kind of put in the initial lines and then swap out my tools as needed.

How long did it take you to kind of get that process down?

Were you good at it right away or I imagine there's kind of a learning curve.

There is a learning curve, especially with the heat settings.

Scorches at a much lower temperature.

So I have a kind of a throwaway mushroom that I always test my heat settings and my blades on before I put any marks on my actual piece just to see what's going to happen.

So it almost looks to me I don't have any tattoos, but we've interviewed tattoo artists and they do the, like, lots of little pokes.

Mm hmm.

That's sort of what it looks like.

Am I.

Am I completely off my rocker or is that maybe a little bit?

That's what that black background is that I do.

That's a little it's a ball tool.

Every every single one is a choice where I put that.

So that takes a while.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So what inspires your work?

I notice obviously there's a lot of nature.

Is that is that your.

Your greatest love?

Yeah.

I would rather be outside than inside almost any day of the year.

I take a lot of pictures while I'm out.

I like macro photography, a little lens that goes on my phone.

So I take a lot of the pictures that I use in my work.

And how do you translate those pictures into a sketch and then into what is ultimately the mushroom?

Most of my pieces are on commission.

I work on them one at a time, and that's really fun because people say, can you combine this subject matter?

And this subject matter?

These are really important to me.

And then I can kind of go to my photo bank and just based on the shape of the piece, which everyone is different, it's a very organic, one of a kind canvas and just kind of think through, okay, this is the shape, this is what they want.

This will flow.

I often ask artists who have made their art work, their business, if that takes some of the joy out of it.

Is it is it tough to to do commission work and and then also to have it be a business?

I worried about that, too.

It helps me if and I know all the artists in the business are like, that's really stupid, but I don't like to take payment until I'm finished.

Because if I've taken payment before, then it does feel like a job and it feels like I'm up against a deadline and then I do drag my feet.

Yes.

So if I haven't taken payment and if they've given me kind of a free hand with it, then I still feel the joy of creating it.

And I still really enjoy the process and the troubleshooting and the yeah, the whole, the whole thing.

I have really focused on your pyrography just because it absolutely fascinates me.

But you, you mentioned that you also paint you draw.

What what brings you the most joy?

Just creating something that wasn't there before.

Just quantifiable success.

Being able to have something that was in my head, be in front of me.

When I look at your drawings and at the pyrography, what really strikes me is the detail.

I mean, everything is so detailed and I know you love macro photography, so that kind of stands to reason too.

So have you always just been all about detail?

Yeah, I've tried to do different styles and like more modern or impressionistic.

I just can't do it.

Like if it's not detailed, I'll think about it and I'll come back to it and I'll put.

I'll put the detail in, I just can't leave it alone.

What is the hardest part of creating, especially your your detailed pieces?

Knowing when to walk away, especially if I'm working from a picture that someone has given me because they can refer back to that picture.

That's why I like to take the pictures myself.

That way they can't see where I've put that out of place, or this is out of proportion.

Right.

Yeah.

Just knowing when to walk away, when one more line will ruin it.

Yeah.

A lot of artists tell me that where you don't really know when to stop.

Do you ever have a sense of like, oh, yes, it's complete or.

Occasionally.

Okay.

I take a lot of pictures and then I go to bed and then I look at the pictures.

And that way I can kind of see my lights and my darks, my values, all the composition.

Am I okay with that?

Am I not?

And then I can.

Then I can rest easy.

It sounds like you are a very educated artist.

Did you go to school for art or was this something that you are you self-taught?

Like I said, I've drawn in my free time almost my whole life.

But I do have my bachelor's degree from Iowa State University in fine arts with interior design.

And I had to take a lot of regular core art classes and drawing classes and things with that.

So, so that kind of.

Yes, that helps.

And now logistically, how you said you love to hike.

Where do you find your giant mushrooms?

Yeah, they tend to grow on trees that are already in distress or that have already fallen down.

There are a couple of species that they seem to like.

The cottonwood is one.

Once the tree is falling down and starting to lose its bark.

I'm not sure what kind of tree it is, but I'm constantly scanning and looking as I'm hiking.

Obviously nature preserves are no, no, because you can't harvest there.

Right.

But some of the places around allow you to purchase a mushroom hunting permit.

Or you can do that if you have a membership there, which I do at some of the places.

So yeah.

Is is what you end up burning into the mushroom, really, Does the mushroom ever tell you what it needs to be?

Sometimes, yeah.

Based on the shape or based on where the and I call them inclusions, sometimes sticks or pieces of grass or things have grown through the mushroom because that's a kind of a fluid surface when they're growing and they kind of form around things.

So sometimes I have to work around a whole or a bump and based on the shape of that and the location of that on the piece, I can kind of work it into the design, which is really fun.

It's really fun when that's a success.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So obviously you have a very interesting esthetic.

Is there something else you want to try?

Is there something that would that would marry your love of nature and art that you that you haven't done yet?

Oh, that's a slippery slope.

I have so many art supplies and my husband's like, oh, my gosh, focus on one thing.

I'm like I can't.

Yeah.

I've just kind of rein myself in and I would like to try everything just to say, I can do this like I know I can do this, but at some point you have to be like pay the people who are already good at it to do it.

Just buy the thing.

Don't buy the craft supplies.

Yes, that's me.

Yes.

Felicity, your work is so cool and so different and just absolutely beautiful.

Thank you for taking the time to sit down with me today.

Thank you so much for having me.

For more information, find Art by Felicity on Instagram.

Our thanks to Hilarie Couture and Felicity Ratajczak.

Be sure to join us next week for Arts in Focus.

You can catch this and other episodes at PBS Fort Wayne dot org or through our app.

In the meantime, enjoy something beautiful Arts in Focus on PBS Fort Wayne is funded in part by the Community Foundation of Greater Fort Wayne.