Today we’d like to introduce you to Sarah Heinbaugh
Hi Sarah, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
I have no clear memory of myself before I was considered an artist – You know how parents and grown ups introduce kids by describing them? I have always been described as “artist”. I grew up in the suburbs of Houston near NASA- my parents worked there. They were so supportive of my aspirations to chase my art dreams. As a child, I was always drawing and creating things with my hands, and ended up going to art school at The University of Texas at Austin where I fell in love with painting. I graduated in 2006 with a Studio Art degree.
After college, I moved to Colorado Springs to be with my then boyfriend, and current husband of 15 years. He was in the Air Force and stationed there, and we absolutely loved Colorado life! Job-wise, I’ll be honest, it was hard for me to figure out how to apply my love for being an artist and painter and earning an income. I worked several different jobs and painted on the side, and did a few local art shows in the coffee shop where I worked and was thrilled to have a couple shows at a gallery in downtown called the Bridge Art Gallery. A friend of mine also opened her own gallery on Old Colorado City (45 Degrees) and invited me to be one of the featured artists in there. It felt like I was just starting to get in a little bit of a groove in the art scene in Colorado. In 2012, my son was born, and we started getting the itch to move closer to our parents. We decided that we would move back after our daughter was born in 2014. So we packed up everything and moved to Houston. It was bittersweet, for sure. Houston, while it was close to my parents and his, was ultimately not for us. While we were there, I was staying home with the kids during their baby and toddler years. I was all-consumed with my babies in this phase of life, and I took a pretty big hiatus from creating any art at all. I did a few commissioned pieces, but that was about it. I knew I would want to get back into painting, I just didn’t know how yet!
We moved out to Canyon Lake in 2016 to be close to New Braunfels, where my husband went to middle and high school, and had a small network of friends. Life was looking more like we wanted it to once we moved to the Hill Country. Again, I worked during the week and painted on the weekends. This time though, I could get my art “out there” by posting to social media – Instagram and Facebook completely changed my life as far as enabling me to show my artwork to a larger audience. From 2019 – 2020, my following slowly grew, and I caught the attention of people in the New Braunfels area. I did some markets/pop up shows at a friend’s boutique and sold some work there, which was super encouraging! During the pandemic shut down, I spent a LOT of my time painting and posting on Instagram. It was an absolutely perfect storm of forced time at home to paint, and the world was all glued to their phones and trying to find the beauty in life to escape the anxiety and stress that we were all going through! In 2021, a shop in New Braunfels called The Local showed interest in having my paintings in their store and I couldn’t pass up that opportunity. I had gone from full-time to part-time at my job at a pediatric dental office, and now I was ready to take the leap and become a full-time artist. I think I needed that much time to gain the confidence to give my artwork the attention it deserved. I do wish I had arrived at this sooner, it feels like I’m a little late to the game, but at the same time we all get to where we’re supposed to be at the right time.
I’m currently showing paintings and prints of New Braunfels locations, central Texas – inspired objects and landscapes, and musicians at The Local in downtown New Braunfels. I also have prints and originals in Blue Sky Art on Wheels, a mobile art gallery that shows throughout the Austin area, and in a boutique in San Marcos called Trends & Traditions.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
It’s definitely not been a smooth road for me! It’s been full of starts and stops, shifts, and of course, obstacles. But that’s the way life goes! For me, those harder times have helped me truly appreciate where I am right now. The struggles I’ve faced have been anywhere from mentally not knowing “where to go from here” after college to literally having to paint outside in the freezing cold or blazing hot temperatures, to finding the right balance of my life as a mom, wife and artist. I’m also always questioning myself and what I’m doing. I think all of these things are good ways of getting myself to be intentional.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I paint in acrylic and oil paint, primarily. I love the qualities of both of them, and will sometimes end up layering oil over acrylic. I am highly inspired by the world around me and I know that’s a super broad description of “what” I paint! It’s hard for me to be inspired by just one thing over and over again. I love painting portraits, so I have done many different portraits of musicians over the last 5 years. I also paint a lot of local scenes and locations in the New Braunfels area. I will often branch out and delve into other subjects in a mini-series (for example I have a series of boots, champagne bottles and disco balls, a cactus series, and Western accessories in landscapes). It’s important for me to give myself the opportunity to explore different types of subjects because you never know where it will take you, It keeps my creativity moving forward, also.
I feel most proud of the paintings I’ve done of people tubing the river. I think there’s a perfect combination in there of my love for figures and the movement of the water to make me feel like I’m right where I should be. I am not 100% sure what sets me apart from others through their perspective. I think my style of painting, which lands somewhere between realism and impressionism, as well as my use of vivid colors might be what makes me me.
Is there any advice you’d like to share with our readers who might just be starting out?
To any artist out there just starting out – get yourself out there! Paint a lot! Be OK with being uncomfortable. There’s no one way to be an artist, in fact, every artist has a very nuanced way that works for them – that’s normal!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.sarahheinbaugh.com
- Instagram: @SarahHeinbaugh_Art
- Facebook: https://facebook.com/SarahHeinbaugh
