Business & Tech

New Stephanie Paige Show at Sandstone Gallery

The artist's latest exhibition runs through February 4.

Story submitted by Trevor David Castor:

Stephanie Paige brings peace and meditative art to this world when we need it the most.

Her work in the past five years has been on the rise and has become what collectors are looking for and where top galleries are seeking her work out. The reason is this: Stephanie's work is created in such a unique way, her choices of colors and compositions merge with her overall spiritual message.

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The work speaks to people on a deep level. Her collectors are drawn to her work because it gives them a feeling of peacefulness and balance that they need in their everyday busy lives. Stephanie's connection to this earth and all the wonderment of nature is what drives her passion. People recognize this sense of nature and connect to that higher self that we all have within us.

Visiting her studio for the first time with Stephanie was an amazing feeling. She lives up in the mountains of San Diego in a town called Ramona. The view from her studio is breathtaking, and the nature that surrounds her every day is where she gets inspired.

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She shows me her process and how she hand-makes her marble dust plasters that are applied layer by layer, each time using natural pigments to create different colors. Each layer takes up to a week to dry, then she sands the layers down, exposing the underlayers and creating an amazing effect.

Then the hard work comes in, where she burnishes and polishes the plastered texture with a lot of pressure with a metal trowel. It takes about a month to create one piece. She has four eight-foot tables with trays underneath to help each piece dry, so she can work on more than one piece at a time.

When she walks into her studio, she feels so happy and inspired, and when she creates each piece, she repeatedly says thank you to herself. Gratitude is her motivation and her spirit—it drives everything she does, and she feels she puts into her work a message of connectedness and living-in-the-moment.

Stephanie loves green art as well, where she re-purposes found material into her work, like old metal car parts and old fence posts. Her abstract paintings have been collected worldwide by private art collectors.

I asked her if there were more galleries in the future for her, and her reply was this:

"There is a plan to be showing in the Pacific Northwest soon, and there are a few markets I am interested in for the future, but because each gallery is doing so well, it is not about how many galleries to be in, it's about being in the right ones. I am at the point now that I am letting my art lead the way."

Stephanie also is working with a nonprofit gallery in Laguna Beach called Transformation at Gallery 1951, working directly with Wisdom Spring Inc., a non-profit organization that brings education and water through building wells in communities in Africa and around the world. Her work is currently showing there, and some of the proceeds go directly to this charity.

"This place and the beautiful people involved like Susan Hough, the owner of the gallery, helps me live my life's purpose, and I have been blessed with a gift and I need to give it away to make a difference in this world, because that fills my heart," said Stephanie.

Her current show, which just opened Thursday, Jan. 3 at Sandstone Gallery (384-A N. Coast Highway) is called "Inspired by Nature," and will be on view until February 4.

I ask Stephanie if this is the life she always dreamed of, because I can imagine as an artist, this is a dream come true.

"I am beyond grateful and overwhelmed with gratitude that people love my work the way they do," she said. "It makes me feel so honored and blessed. The other part to this amazing career is my relationship with the owners of the galleries and the people that work there. They have become my family, and it is such a wonderful and exciting partnership. It's one thing to show your work and having it sell, but when you add the element that the people selling your work believe in you and your work and get what you are all about, it's priceless."

You can view Stephanie Paige's work at her website, stephaniepaigestudio.com.


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