Meet Steve DiFrancesco | Artist

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

Hi Steve, why did you decide to pursue a creative path?
I have always enjoyed drawing and painting was a natural progression. For the first decade or so, I gave away more than I sold. I managed to get placement into a specialty store in a nearby town and was selling as much as I could produce. This encouraged me to explore other sales channels and I opened an Etsy shop in 2011 but it wasn’t until 5 years later that I began to see some traffic and sales. This encouraged me to continue creating seeing that my work was accepted by people outside my circles of friends and family.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
My art is primarily miniature pieces and mostly done on 3.25″ diameter glass ornaments but I will paint on nearly any object. The ornaments are unique, in my opinion, for the detail and that the scene goes completely around.

I began painting in oils on canvas but after trying to paint the ornaments in oils, I switched to acrylics. I found that I could use smaller brushes and add more detail to the work. Over the years my work has evolved from simple winter scenes to nearly anything you can think of but primarily landscapes and western art. The challenges of painting a scene that travels around and encompasses the entire sphere are enjoyable to me. Almost all of my work is from my imagination but I have done some from particular photos of places, animals or even people, for specific requests.

The woodcraft side of the business belongs to my very creative daughter who has an great ability to visualize a project and has developed a good sense of what a species of wood will yield the best results for staining and or painting. Her knowledge of social media use has been valuable in trying to establish an online presence and she even taught herself the use of software to create our logo.

We have been growing slowly, without the use of the paid promoters. Since we both have full time day jobs this is still a sideline for us.

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?
While Loveland is still a small town, it is internationally known for it’s support of the arts and home to many amazing sculptors and artists and some of the foundries offer tours.

It is also home to several high quality breweries so that would also have to be on the list.

But it’s real claim to fame is as the gateway to Rocky Mountain National Park , about 30 miles away through the Big Thompson Canyon so we would have to visit Estes Park and take a trip into RMNP. If visiting before the end of October, when it typically closes for the winter, a drive over Trail Ridge Road would also be in order. Trail Ridge rises to over 12,000′ and crosses the Continental Divide.

I don’t go out to eat much so I’m not very familiar with local eateries.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
The first shoutout has to go to God, for His creations where I find my inspiration, and blessed me with my talent and ability. Then my mother-in-law next. She encouraged me to paint the ornaments nearly 40 years ago. Of course my wife and family for understanding and accepting the alone time I take to create. The owner of The shop in Estes Park, CO that first took my work in. And everyone, that I will never meet, that appreciated my art enough to purchase it

Website: https://www.etsy.com/shop/DiFrancescoStudios

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

Twitter: https://twitter.com/SteveDiFran