Heather Sundquist Hall is an artist and illustrator based in the small town of Smithville,Texas. She grew up in Queens, New York, ended up in Philadelphia for school and beyond for many years, then moved to Texas with husband and fellow artist, Michael Hall in 2015. They first lived just on the edge of Austin and still maintain a great community of artist friends there, but slower pace and a smaller community called them to Smithville, where they now have another small community of art friends.
Heather’s paintings are drawn from memories, nostalgia and narratives.
Her artwork honors what has been forgotten, overlooked or under- appreciated by bringing it in the forefront of a lovely landscape or transformed into a new life by altering the purpose of an object into a completely different natural setting. She was introduced to gouaches by her husband Michael when they first started dating in Philadelphia. She was frustrated with acrylics and gouaches were an immediate fit. Her gouache paintings over the years since we have known her have been grown to become rich magical pieces which shine with light and sparkle with detail.
We were introduced to Heather and her Michael a number of years back through mutual friends and have treasured their sweet friendship. She is a joy to work with an inspiration of a person with her wit and insight.

We have been doing a series of interviews with artists and recently sent Heather a series of questions for continued insight into her and her work……here’s a few of the questions.

Did you do art as a child? 
 When I was a kid, I made a lot of little books, little sculptures with found objects and drew everything. My dad worked at a newspaper and was generous with endless access to paper and office supplies. My sister and I put on a lot of plays too and I would task myself with creating little invitations and playbills. My mom taught me to sew pretty early on, so I'd make little handbags and clothes for my dolls. My family across the board always really encouraged creativity, whatever it looked like and made space for me at the table to do so. 

When did you start painting seriously and what moved you to do so?
I started painting more seriously when I got to Texas in 2012. It felt (and feels) important to record this landscape. I guess it's part therapy and part just trying to process the past and the present like a journal. When my dad passed away in 2016, I got really focused on painting campers and camping scenes that reminded me of him and our time together. Camping is such a universal activity and those pieces really resonated with other people. From there, I began to think of other ways that we relate to one another and started to include more of those components in my work. It's been fun over the years to hear other peoples stories of the objects that are in my paintings from the cars to the ice machines and the rundown kiddie rides. I like to help people remember their memories. I guess I've been hooked on that feeling. 

Your work is so detailed and lush, with a hint of humanity humor.  If you were to do a huge mural today, what would the subject be?
I think if I were to make a huge mural, I'd want to make something like a meandering road side scene at dusk with billboards painted through, kinda like those old Burma Shave ads. I'd probably litter the roads and cars on the road with junk and things like vending machines, amusement park rides and balloons. With everything I make I want to remind other people (and myself) not to take things too seriously and to stop, look around and leave room for the lighthearted.