Meet Elyssa Edgerly | Fine Artist

We had the good fortune of connecting with Elyssa Edgerly and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Elyssa, what’s the most important lesson your business/career has taught you?
Trust in your process! Trust your journey! Let your community encourage you and push you farther along your creative path. When I show up authentically and openly share what I do…the web of support appears. We need to unabashedly put our creations out into the world. I’ve learned that I need to leap into my confidence as an artist and trust that a community out there will connect with and feel inspired by my work. I know this is true for other artists as well.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
The element that excites me the most about my art is my infusion of natural elements. I have an ever-growing collection of unique treasures in my toolbox that I’ve collected from wild places around the globe to incorporate into my process. I collect wild plants, shells, feathers, old coral, branches, seed pods and other interesting natural objects. After creating layered under-paintings, I use these objects to stencil natural forms and earth’s intricate patterns throughout my work. These subtleties are intended to evoke a sense of relationship to the land, plant, ocean, and animal kingdoms. When I started painting (with zero art education) my paintings consisted of a single layer. Now, eight years later (after investing in a variety of art intensives and a year long mastery program), most of my paintings consist of at least 12-15 layers from an array of mediums. I use graphite, hard modeling paste, decoupage, acrylic inks, alcohol inks, watercolor, spray paint, Caran D’Ache, gold leaf, acrylic, and most importantly transparent and opaque oil paints. This makes my process endlessly fun and interesting. Many artists work to perfect a single medium, but I’ve discovered that creating a variety of layers really brings a painting to life and allows the artist immense freedom in expression.

Getting to where I am today was definitely not easy! It took an incredible amount of time experimenting, diving into the unknown, and late night painting in my studio. I continually remind myself to just keep going! It’s the same as a painting…the more layers and the further I push and pull depth…the farther I get in this art career. The artistic path has been undulating. When I go for it: say yes to daunting things, collaborate, and put myself out there, life opens up with beautiful opportunities. I recently said yes to collaborating on a four-wall mural with two other women…and it was one of the raddest experiences I’ve had in my art career. I’m hooked on massive scale painting now!

One of the biggest lessons I’ve learned, as I alluded to before, is to just keep going. Each micro-movement is progress. When I feel stuck or stagnant in my creative process, my procrastination and doubt creeps in and I have to force myself to take creative action and keep painting even if the path forward isn’t clear. Pushing through resistance is a muscle that we can all develop. Each painting has multiple ugly stages…but each fresh layer of paint can pull us up into creative expansion. Trusting in the process is key to a successful painting and career. Push through resistance!

I hope that my art and artistic process inspires humanity to live bold! Live beautiful! I bring more color into the world to inspire you to live more vibrantly. I hope my paintings motivate you to cultivate a rich essence in your life…to cultivate deep connections to the natural world as well as all the beautiful souls in your community.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
If I had a friend visiting Paonia, their visit would be centered around food, art, music and time in the wild! I’d take them hiking up the Dark Canyon for river dippin’ and raspberry pickin’ or mushroom hunting and lake swimming on the Grand Mesa. Tuesday would be a lovely evening in the town park for the Arbol Farmer’s Market community dinner and live music. Throughout the week we’d enjoy some wine and fruit picking tours, stopping at Stone Cottage Cellars, Azura, and Delicious Orchards. On Friday morning we would bike over to Mountain Oven Organic Bakery for the tastiest savory and sweet pastries and enjoy them down by the river park. Friday eve is the best night for enjoying traditional Thai food and ice cream at the new TLC Kitchen…which is where my new collaborative mural is located! The week wouldn’t be complete without a mountain bike ride on Jumbo Mountain for either sunrise or sunset.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
I’d love to give a shoutout to my husband, Josh Paigen! He has been supporting me since the first day I picked up a paintbrush when we were living abroad in Australia circa 2014. From sweating through art fairs, to helping me with fine art reproductions, to fresh DJ sets in my studio, to setting up art tents in wild hailstorms, to critiquing the most minuscule details, he has been my number one fan. I definitely owe mountains of gratitude to him for his endless encouragement and belief in me as an artist.

Website: elyssaedgerly.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/elyssa_edgerly/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/elyssaedgerlyfineart

Image Credits
Eric Allen Photography