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Drawing

Naava Katz: Creating Love Letters of Art

February 25, 2023 by Ronni Diamondstein

Naava’s drawing of her daughters, Talya and Shira

In Hebrew the name Naava means lovely and Naava Katz truly lives up to her name. The expression of love is a theme for Katz who has a passion for creating emotional and inspiring art about children and motherhood.

Katz has been drawing since she was a child. After attending art school, she spent a decade as a graphic designer. Katz went back to graduate school with a goal to work in media for children. She then worked as a website producer for Scholastic and one day had an epiphany and became an art teacher.

“Never in a million years did I think I would stay home,” says Katz. The entire time she was pregnant and after the birth of her children, she found she was more creative than ever. “I had always drawn things in the moment I’m in. When I was a teen, I drew a lot of cartoons about teens. When I became a mother, I drew about being a mother.” Katz took photographs of herself with her daughters and then drew them. “It helped me process the experience in a much better way,” says Katz. She then posted those drawings on Instagram and people started noticing and she received requests for commissions.

When both girls were in school Katz had the time to learn more about women in business and the world of licensing. She started submitting art to Minted.com and sold a greeting card to Target. She now has a line of greeting cards at Trader Joe’s.

Then she started taking commissions from families. “I fall in love with every family that I get to draw. The stories these families tell me are so profound,” says Katz.

Social media helped Katz spread her art. Instagram posts of her portraits have caught the attention of people like Rachel Zoe, Mena Suvari and Nancy Pelosi as well as countless others. “Someone said this is the best time to be an artist because of social media. I have been drawing my entire life and in the past you would put it on your refrigerator or under your bed. Now within seconds you can share it with the entire world,” says Katz.

Naava’s self portrait

Katz has started taking commissions for holiday cards. “It was a way for me to do something I love,” says Katz. “It’s not something they just keep in their homes.  They send them out to their friends and family and now all those people get to hold my art in their hands in a very personal, sentimental way. It’s always about deep emotional connections and relationships.”  From the experience of putting the cards together, this led her to a new avenue she’s pursuing of custom stationery that includes portraits of people. Katz has already done this as gifts for her children’s friends and new babies. “Handwritten notes are so personal. I especially love the idea of putting a portrait of the child on the stationery.”

Katz’s father, a professional artist and photographer who worked in the fashion district had a great influence on her creative life. After he passed away, Katz imagined what it would be like if he were alive now and how he would interact with her girls, Talya and Shira. She drew it and that gave birth to her idea for “In Memoriam Portraits,” another commission option.

Katz has learned a lot from her experience on her creative journey and has advice for artists of all types. “The most important thing to do is to find your voice and it’s also the hardest thing. Just be yourself so deeply with your art so there is no denying who you are. Trust what you are here to say.”

“I can’t believe that I have created a job where I get to draw every day–that was my childhood dream–and for my daughters to see their mother doing this,” says Katz. She is grateful for the support of her husband Ariel Simon, a teacher. “Artists are inherently insecure and second guess ourselves. I owe a tremendous amount to him.”

Katz isn’t sure of what comes next, but she is excited about taking on larger projects in the future.

It comes as no surprise that “love” is Katz’s favorite word. “I put the word love in the name of my business,” says Katz. “I felt that all the art that I do now are love letters to people from me and for people to give to other people.”

For more information and to view her work go to her website lovenaava.com.

Filed Under: Cover Stories Tagged With: Art, Art Letters, artist, Drawing, greeting cards, Naava, Naava Katz

The Portraits of Laurel Stern Boeck

March 7, 2014 by The Inside Press

Governor Jodi Rell
Governor Jodi Rell

By Sarah Ellen Rindsberg

It’s not every day that one receives a call from Jodi Rell, former Governor of Connecticut or meets with Dennis Hastert, former speaker of the House. For Laurel Stern Boeck, one of the nation’s foremost portrait artists, working with accomplished and fascinating clients are a unique perk and all in a day’s work. Her success in the competitive field of portraiture is evident in her many prestigious commissions, including esteemed men and women in politics, military, business, judicial and academic circles.

The art of portraiture became the center of Boeck’s world at an early age. “I have always loved drawing and painting. I focused on capturing faces, spending day’s just drawing eyes, then noses, and then mouths. I remember examining the structure of each part of the face, the real character of the person developed as my skills and technique became more advanced.”

While attending the School of Visual Arts in New York, Boeck studied illustration and design.  She worked as a freelance illustrator and became an art director for an ad agency in NYC.

Kenneth Standard of the Harvard Club
Kenneth Standard of the Harvard Club

She continued pursuing her love of portraits while working, and found her mentor in master artist John Murray. She studied with him for many years, learning the craft and techniques of the Old Masters. “That journey toward excellence was one of the most rewarding times in my life.” Boeck recalled, “Each day that I grasped a new concept or mastered a difficult technique was thrilling.”  She honed her skills and developed her own unique style, which led to her first portrait commissions, and launched her artistic career.

Boeck’s classical representational style portrays the extraordinary spirit as well as the fine nuances of her subjects. Boeck is widely known for her attention to detail; the appropriate treatment of a client’s hands is as important as the subtle mixture of flesh tones. “I try to be very faithful to the topography of the face, “she says. “Ultimately I want the portrait to reflect the person, if I am faithful to what I see, their personality will come through.”

A most recent representation of her philosophy appears in her portrait of the editor and publisher of this magazine, Grace Bennett. The result is stunning. (See Grace’s own sidebar about the experience!)

Painting has provided her with a wonderful work/life balance. After a day trip to Washington to meet with a subject, Boeck lands at Westchester airport to spend the evening with her husband and children. Most days she paints in the spacious art studio she designed and added to her Bedford home. Part of her mission is to nurture other artists. She does this by teaching at the Katonah Art Center, hosting a painting workshop in her studio and with a personalized mentorship program for artists looking to accelerate their careers and broaden their horizons.

Dennis Hastert, Speaker of the House
Dennis Hastert, Speaker of the House

Boeck believes “the best portraits both capture the essence of the subject, and are infused with the spirit of their life.”  Along with famous subjects, Laurel also commissions everyday portrait and event work.  For more info, please visit: www.boeckstudio.com

 Sarah Ellen Rindsberg thinks Boeck’s portrait of the publisher masterfully captured Bennett’s entrepreneurial spirit and vivacious personality.

On Being Painted by Laurel…

Laurel and I were introduced by a mutual friend. I love art and was intrigued by an offer to sit with an artist who gets to paint all day. It sounded like a dream come true. Little did I know the surprise awaiting me in Laurel’s Westchester studio!

North light windows, a plethora of tubes of paint, brushes galore and several easels filled a high ceiling, airy sunlit room; an office area upstairs accommodates the business of doing art too. Paintings were in full view everywhere, from large and small finished commissions to small, unfinished but still delightful oil sketches.

Grace Bennett
Grace Bennett

Laurel and I hit it off right away; following tea and treats, her welcoming spirit put me at ease as she spent time considering how to pose and light me on the large model stand.

The sitting proceeded accompanied by conversation and enjoyable background music (she says the music helps her too!). Only on a few occasions did she suggest stillness and silence while working in the area of the eyes or mouth. “I do not mind movement,” she said. “It helps to keep the freshness and eliminates any stiffness in the pose. The true nature is then revealed.”  Posing breaks were granted every 20 minutes or so. I was amazed at the painting process and certainly very pleased to view such an appealing representation of myself on canvas!

–Grace BennettGrace-sitting-in-progress_edited-1

Filed Under: Gotta Have Arts Tagged With: Design, Drawing, Fine art, Illustration, Paintings, Portraits

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