The cat is out of the bag!! New week, new release, new artist...welcome, Savannah Jewell! Countless friends and clients have mentioned Savannah's works as some they they’d love to see in our collection - and when y’all ask we can’t help but answer. Savannah is launching her debut body of work in our collection this Thursday at 10 am and we are counting down the days until her paintings are live. Until then, we thought it would be fun to get to know the woman behind the artist. Learning everything from her biggest sources of inspiration to what her ideal date night is. And this is just the start! We can’t wait to share more of Savannah with you! Her latest body of work will be available on Well + Wonder tomorrow 02/16 at 10 am., but for now fall a little more in love with Savannah by reading her responses to our rapid-fire Q&A Pardon Me, Savannah Jewell?...
What is currently on your nightstand?
The Anna Wintour Biography, a silver Patrick Mavros giraffe, and a favorite Japanese rice water night cream.
Who is your biggest influence as an artist and why?
Too many to name, both dead and alive. I can say that I get just as much inspiration from architects, musicians and interior designers as I do other artists.
If you could only have one supply in your art studio, what would it be and why?Golden Paints! The color variety and quality are great.
What is your favorite room in your house? Describe it.
My favorite room in my house is my living room. I call it the drawing room (accentuated with a slow and drawn out British accent.) With inspiration from Victorian drawing rooms, and my idea of Winston Churchill’s library, it is rather grandfatherly. My house was built in 1920 and the living room looks into the entryway where the front doors have beautiful stained glass. The furniture is a mix of new and antique. The art is juxtaposed with a large modern abstract and a large antique portrait of a woman… an antique map of Paris and London, and a handful of my watercolors in modern frames.
What is your biggest score online?
I’m not a huge online shopper, but I do LOVE the thrill of a good Facebook marketplace find, and boy have I found some serious treasures! My favorite probably being the 4 antique Turkish and Persian rugs in my house – all from FB Marketplace!
What is the benefit of buying art through a collective? What do you recommend for those that are new to buying original art?
The biggest benefit of buying art through a collective is the ability to discover new and fresh art a buyer would have never seen otherwise. I’ve often paired my work with other complementary work at group shows and a buyer will purchase both pieces. For those new to buying original art, I say start small, and buy what tugs on your heart. I’ve had buyers tell me that a certain color sky reminded them of their grandmother, a landscape looked like where they got engaged, or a place they visited with someone special.
If you have the entire day to spend in an art museum, which one and why?
Too many to choose! If I must choose one, it would be the L’Orangerie in Paris. Claude Monet painted his 8 compositions of waterlilies specifically for the two oval shaped rooms the paintings were installed in after his death back in the 1920s. Each of the works are over 6 feet tall and varying in lengths. I could sit and stare at them all day!
What is your favorite hotel and what makes it special?
The Bowery, The Carlyle, and the Plaza in NYC make me happy happy… but The Angad Arts Hotel in St. Louis, MO is a ton of fun with great art displays, and all of the rooms are themed a different color scheme. When booking a room, you can choose if you want to stay in a room that is all yellow, blue, green or red! Even the rubber duckies in the bathroom are color coordinated!
If you were a lipstick color would you be red, pink, or clear and why?
If I were a lipstick color, I would be YSL #13. It’s the perfect blend of both orange and red. It exudes confidence, and accentuates a summer glow!
I can never get on a plane without….
Dramamine chewable tablets! I’ve been to 30 countries and still have flight anxiety and crazy motion sickness. I also have a fabulous sleeping mask that is raised around the eyes so you can blink underneath it. Sounds silly, but a total luxury!
How did you get into the world of art?
The world of art has sucked me in from a very early age and I can only thank my elementary art school teachers for encouraging me to believe that art was “my thing.”
What do you do to relax?
To relax, I enjoy yoga nidra, hot tea, gardening and uninterrupted time to read. I love to seek painting inspiration from coffee table books on design, gardening, architecture, fashion, and art. I also enjoy slow weekend mornings at home watching the light filter in to my windows at different times of day.
When do you get the biggest surge of inspiration?
I get the biggest surge of inspiration when I’m planning travel. I’m constantly scouring flight deals. The thrill of the unknown, through research about a destination excites me so! I love when the planning comes together and you arrive to a place that seems surreal. Colors, food, museums, traffic flow, architecture, plants, the style of clothing people wear, the smells! I love to have an overtaking sensory overload experience.
Prediction for the Color of 2024?
A yummy deep and velvety marigold.
What is your idea of a date night? Dinner and a movie or dancing all night?
I’ll take all the delicious food at the latest hot spot! I enjoy going to dinner with a group that is keen to share food and eat “family style.” I’m a bit of a lush, and have been known to or order the whole menu.
Tell us about your favorite painting that you have created.
My favorite painting I’ve created is a diptych totaling 8 feet long by 5 feet tall. I finished the pieces on a whim just days before my first solo show in 2020. I had just returned the weekend before from a road trip across the desert in west Texas in the middle of July. I knew I had to get the dusty pale pinks pulsing with inspiration out of my system and the works turned out to be a big hit. The pieces were featured in the background of my Scout Guide photoshoot a couple of years back.
One piece of advice for buying original art?
Always, always, always buy it because you love the work, and connect with the artist. If you love it, you’ll have it for years to come and it won’t be replaced when the next color trend comes around. Never buy art because its trendy or just to fill a space. Leave the wall blank until that something special grabs a hold of you! It doesn’t have to mean anything to anyone else, but you. I’m always finding my own symbolism in the artworks I collect.
