Poured-media artist's work delights the senses

Henriette Heiny is a woman thoroughly schooled in discipline and creativity.

"She is a renaissance woman," said Karen Thomas, owner of Toriizaka Art in Sisters, where Heiny's work is on permanent display, along with being featured during the Sisters Arts Association Studio Tour.

Photo provided

Henriette Heiny and "Mazama," at Toriizaka Art.

Abstract expressionism was the last thing on young Henriette Heiny's mind when she was a young teenager in Cologne, Germany, after World War II.

"I remember painting copies of the Dutch masters in the garage of our apartment," she recalled. "They were ghastly, but that's how I was introduced to art. I had a great time entertaining myself with a little collection of oil paints."

In high school, she found herself wide awake and fascinated by an art appreciation class, while everyone around her went to sleep. She knew then that she wanted to study art, but her parents, being practical Germans, insisted that she study pedagogy (teaching) so that she could support herself. To satisfy both desires, she studied Anglistics (English literature), art history, and archaeology at the University of Cologne, and sports and sports sciences at the German Sports University.

Marrying and moving to the United States in the mid-1970s, she became a gymnastics coach and instructor at the University of Oregon, and later the Associate Director of the Oregon Bach Festival. In 1987, she completed her doctorate in art history. She worked for the legendary Bill Bowerman as executive director of the International Institute for Sports and Human Performance, with an office on Hayward Field. Amid her demanding academic schedule, she continued to study and create art in many forms, including lithography with Ken Paul, and relief and intaglio printing with LaVerne Krause – both art forms that are deliberate and demand careful planning.

Along her art journey, she discovered the magic of pouring acrylic paint onto a prepared canvas.

"I fell into paint pouring by accident," she said. "The color and the paint drive me to create something that's beyond what's happening on the canvas. I work very fast. It is my personality to make very fast decisions and live with it.

"I select my colors and hues carefully for their emotional resonance. When I tip the first cup of paint onto the canvas and it pools and spreads like a living entity, I move with it, adding layers, tilting the canvas, and guiding the flow without controlling it. It's all about letting go; embracing the uncertainty and finding beauty in the unexpected."

Quite unlike the work of other poured-media artists, Heiny's work appears both spontaneous and structured. First she studies and plans the techniques, including the properties of different paint media, and the effects obtained by different colors. For instance, cadmium yellow creates cells by itself. As long as the paint remains wet, it can be manipulated, with heat, with pipettes, spatulas, or palette knives, or by scraping one color away and using another over it. And once a piece is dry, she may hand-paint into it.

Karen Thomas says, "In her paintings she investigates the interplay of paint opacity and transparency, viscosity and flow to create beautiful color expressions that delight the senses."

Heiny's canvases are all very organic, and may be paired so that one framed piece seems to flow into another, such that they speak to one another. Her work often maintains open or negative space, either in white or black. It's a joyful expression of planned spontaneity. Final paintings are completed with black floater frames, all made by her husband.

Heiny's work will be featured in the Sisters Arts Association Studio Tour, Saturday and Sunday, September 21-22, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Click here to see related story.