Cynthia Feustel | Heart and Soul

By Bonnie Gangelhoff

Delicate lace curtains fall to the floor, framing the figure of a young girl gazing out a window. Her hair in braided pigtails, the girl wears vintage pioneer-era clothing—a white apron atop a long dress. Light from the window casts a warm glow over the scene and a pool of gold at the girl’s feet.

Painter Cynthia Feustel says this painting, IMAGINING, represents one of those rare, magical times when an artwork seems to paint itself. The inspiration for the piece, Feustel explains, came from a reference photograph that she took at a living-history ranch at Colorado’s Garden of the Gods. The photo captured the ethereal light as it seeped through the lace curtains, intriguing the Colorado-based artist. And the scene brought to mind words by 19th-century naturalist Henry David Thoreau, “The world is but a canvas to our imagination”—hence the title.

Feustel explains that the meaning of the painting, like all of her artworks, is dependent on “the heart of the beholder.” “The painting can embody childhood imagination, wonderment, and dreams of the future, or possibly it can evoke the harsh reality we suddenly find ourselves experiencing as a result of social distancing,” she says. “It is the connection between the artist, the subject, and the viewer that brings a unique narrative experience to each painting and goes beyond the literal to the soul of the painting.”

Last summer Feustel received an Award of Excellence for IMAGINING at the annual American Women Artists show, held at the Booth Western Art Museum in Cartersville, GA. Although she paints in all genres, she is known primarily for her sensitive portraits and figurative works. She relishes depicting the subtle nuances of the human face and form while conveying human emotions. Often her models are volunteers at living-history ranches who have studied and understand the ways of the early pioneers who settled the West. They dress in authentic costumes and move through their settings as if they have traveled back in time to the 1900s, Feustel says.

Inspiration also can spring from patterns, textures, and fabrics from cultures that span the globe, from Native American to East Asian. A good example is SERENITY, a portrait of a Korean-American girl, which won second place at the annual Women Artists of the West show held at Settlers West Galleries in Tucson, AZ, last spring.

Cynthia McBride, owner of McBride Gallery in Annapolis, MD, has represented Feustel since 2017 after viewing the artist’s paintings in another Women Artists of the West show. “Cynthia knows how to paint the figure very well and how to take it to the next level of communicating the spirit of the subject,” McBride says. “If you asked her, I think she might say she is just trying to paint the person in front of her honestly, just as she sees that person in that moment.”

When Feustel is working on a painting, she often researches the words she is using in the title. In researching the word “imagination,” she wound up discovering something about herself that she calls “life-changing.” Most people can imagine images—scenes, faces, objects, and experiences. However, 1 to 3 percent of the population is unable to visualize mental images. Feustel, who has painted for decades, realized she is part of that small group. “I close my eyes, and it’s black. There is no theater of the mind, no play of literal scenes going on in my head. I don’t see images in my imagination,” she says. “My paintings start as experiences, feelings, or words, not as images in my mind.”

The phenomenon Feustel refers to is known as aphantasia, sometimes referred to as “blind man’s eye.” When Feustel creates an artwork, she uses reference photos and Photoshop to bring together and express a desired feeling, emotion, or mood that she wishes to convey.

Growing up in a small rural town in central Pennsylvania, Feustel displayed an early interest in art and took classes from a local artist. After graduating as valedictorian of her high school, she enrolled at Pennsylvania State University. But she soon discovered that academic life was not for her. Eager to focus solely on art, she transferred to the Art Institute of Pittsburgh, where fashion illustration classes provided her with knowledge of anatomy, how the body moves, and an understanding of the clothed figure. The education served as a good foundation for the career she would eventually pursue, Feustel says.

For several years she worked as a graphic designer before taking time out to devote to her family. Some of her first paintings during those years were watercolor portraits depicting her children. It didn’t take long before friends, extended family, and community members in her town of DuBois, PA, bombarded her with requests for commissions. Feustel eventually switched from watercolors to oils, spending hours learning about the new medium in books and videos. “The move to oil painting was a perfect fit not only for my work and subject matter but because everything about the medium resonated with me,” she says.

From 1999 until 2009, Feustel worked as a full-time commissioned portrait artist, maintaining a spacious loft studio in town where she also taught classes. And the cavernous space allowed her to work on large-scale murals, including one commissioned by the CEO of the Pittsburgh Pirates baseball team. Then in 2009, Feustel and her husband visited their daughter, who had moved to Colorado. “We fell in love with Colorado, seeing the flat open space of the eastern plains and the mountains in the distance,” she says. “And we wanted to be near our daughter, so we decided to move there.”

They returned to Pennsylvania, sold their house, loaded their belongings into a U-Haul and set out for the Rocky Mountains. For Feustel, the move kicked off a whole new chapter in her art journey. Once in Colorado she redefined herself as a fine artist, no longer concentrating solely on commissions. Within the first year of this new chapter, Feustel was juried into several national shows, including the 2010 Oil Painters of America Western Regional Exhibition, slowly gaining national exposure and recognition. Gallery representation followed.

Today Feustel lives in Colorado Springs and maintains a studio nearby in Old Colorado City, a charming historic district. The comfortable space is her home away from home. There are books and magazines scattered about as well as several still-life painting stations, easels, and a cabinet stocked with props for the students she mentors.

In one area sits an inviting green chaise lounge. “It’s for the times when I need to process what’s on the easel or read or just think,” she says. “This is my sanctuary, the place I go when I need to be focused. From the stillness and solitude, I can reflect on the task at hand, work undisturbed, and plan for the next inspiration.”

Always open to exploring new ideas, she accepted a recent commission because the project took her out of her comfort zone and allowed her to work with new materials and processes. Ultimately the experience evolved into a new direction in her art. Her client commissioned an image for a book cover that featured a woman with a gold-leaf halo, reminiscent of a religious icon.

Feustel had never worked with gold leaf before, so once again she turned to books, videos, and the internet for her education. Through experimentation, she devised a method of applying oil paint over the gold leaf, using various new tools to subtract or add to the design. “I used whatever I could find in the studio to wipe out or draw into wet paint—small pieces of rags, Q-tips, and cut-up old credit cards,” she says.

The painting, titled RAHAB, pleased both client and artist. And the client commissioned another gold-leaf work for the second book in the series, allowing Feustel to refine her process even more. “As a result of all this I have begun to use metal leaf in some of my new works,” she says. “These paintings provided the impetus to move forward with enthusiasm and confidence. It allowed my own artistic voice freedom through exploration. It has given me a fresh perspective and stretched the boundaries of my creativity.”

On her easel at press time is a mystical figurative piece she has titled THE MESSENGER, which features a silver-leaf background and includes images of the moon and a raven. The painting could find a landing place at G44 Gallery in Colorado Springs, where a solo show of her works opens in October. “I paint to capture a feeling of intimacy, gratitude, and heightened sensitivity to the beauty and mystery of this world and the human spirit,” she says. “I am drawn to the narrative imagery of these moments and feel compelled to paint the story each has to tell.”

representationMcBride Gallery, Annapolis, MD.

This story appeared in the March/April 2021 issue of Southwest Art magazine.

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