Life and Art: Stefan Kasian interviews Jane Seymour

LIFE & ART

 

On the Larry King Show, May 23, 2005, Jayne Seymour described an anomalous experience during a serious operation:

 

“I was looking down at my body; I heard a man screaming, ‘Emergency! Emergency!’ I was half-naked. I had two huge syringes in my backside, and I was watching from the corner of the room.  And I saw this white light. I had no pain, I had no tension. I just kind of looked, and then thought, ‘That’s very strange. That’s me. But that can’t be me if I’m here.’ And then I realized that I was out of my body, and that I was, you know, going to die. All of a sudden I just looked and I went ‘No! No! I’m not ready to go away. I want to get back in that body. I have children I want to raise. There’s so much I want to do. I want to give back, I want to do so much in the world, and I’m just not ready to go!’ And I came back.”

 

Jane Seymour Tells All

 

During a recent exhibit of Jane Seymour’s personal artwork at the Simic Galleries in Scottsdale Arizona, Dr. Stefan Kasian was permitted this revealing interview.

 

Stefan Kasian: Good Morning!

Jane Seymour: Hi, there.

 

S.K. : Have you enjoyed your time here in Scottsdale?

J.S. : I’d just love to thank the people of Scottsdale because the people here are just so sweet. I had the best time here and met lots of wonderful people. I even met a gentleman who knew my grandfather from England, so it’s a small world. I also met the parents of Jon Landau, my co-star from my television series, “Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman.” They live in Scottsdale.

 

S.K. : I truly enjoyed attending your exhibit. I try to be a connoisseur of both art and of complementary medicine. So I guess we have both topics in common. What sort of professional title would you use to describe your accomplishments?

J.S. : Gosh, I suppose “mother” would be at the top of the list. I would add ”artist” but would use that term to describe my work in various areas. As an actress, I see myself as a communicator. I also communicate as a public speaker and writer. As for painting and my art projects, I really started them for my own pleasure. The fact that other people like my paintings and want to buy them is sort of icing on the cake. Originally, it was very much of a personal communication.

 

S.K. : What inspired you to paint? And then, what inspired you to decide to make your paintings available to the public?

J.S. : Well, I always painted when I was a kid. About 14 years ago, I started painting when my life was in dire straits. I painted because it was the one activity that gave me a sense of peace and serenity in a very turbulent time. Frankly, I thought that I had plenty of money and that I was very financially stable, but I found out that I was so bankrupt that it was mind-blowing.

 

S.K. : Oh, no!

J.S. : My bank account was a stack of many, many, many zeroes. I had lawsuits from many banks and even the FDIC, for purchases and investments that I knew nothing about, until I discovered that my now ex-husband had done all of this to me.

 

S.K. : How terrible!

J.S. : And then I found out that he’d been unfaithful to me, more than a dozen times. So I didn’t want to continue our relationship. And I’m not the only person in the world to which things like this have happened. Unfortunately, with me it happened in a fairly public manner. And my father died of cancer the same year. Basically, the only purpose I have in telling you this is that when things were about as rough as they could get, I gave the last money I had to a charity called Child Help USA. I am the international ambassador for this charity, and in return, an artist named Meilko decided to draw a pencil portrait of my children.

He came to the house, saw my finger paintings in the children’s playroom and really liked them. I laughed and said, “They’re only finger paints.” He said, “They’re really good. Are you a full-time artist?” I said, “No.” And he said, “Would you like to have some lessons?” I said, “Sure, but I have no money, nothing. I’m bankrupt.” He said, “That’s okay. I’ve got time on my hands. I’d love to teach you.”

So he taught me watercolor, his medium. Once I started on that first day, it was as though a huge weight had been lifted from my shoulders. It was as though I could fly to another place, another zone. It was a meditation, it was a healing, and it was a passion for me. It was something that I had to do. It was like my lifeblood. I couldn’t not paint.

So I painted my way out of the entire trauma and somehow, as luck would have it, I was, just about the same time, offered the role of Dr. Quinn. So I never declared bankruptcy. I managed to solve all my financial woes. I kept my kids and my life together. There were big changes, of course. We lost our houses and everything else of a material nature, but I painted and painted and painted. You asked why I started to sell my paintings. Well, when I was working on Dr. Quinn, I would paint between scenes. When you film, there’s a lot of sitting down in between the times when you are on camera. Many people will either eat too much or smoke too much or do crossword puzzles in a book; none of which I do, and none of which helps me maintain my character. But I found that I could paint and still stay in character for the scene.

So I would paint these little watercolors on the set. The crew loved them so much, that they begged me to do some for them. Of course, there were hundreds of requests, so I did a limited edition for them as a crew gift, and they were thrilled. And then they asked me to put them on t-shirts, so they could wear my art every day. So we had grown men doing very physical labor, wearing flowered t-shirts with my artwork on it. And then I was approached by Discover Card Private Issue to do their first art-inspired credit card. I did that, and showed three of my pieces at the Guggenheim Museum, and they auctioned off the one that was on the card. It sold for $25,000.

 

S.K. : Wonderful.

J.S. : The money went to the Make-A-Wish Foundation and enabled five families to take their dying children on their last trip.

 

 

S.K. : How touching.

J.S. : That particular card apparently did incredibly well, better than the other one, so they hired me for a second year and I donated another piece, which also made a similar amount of money and enabled seven families to take their kids on trips. So I realized that I could raise a great deal of money with my art. So now I donate pieces to charity regularly.

 

S.K. : I see.

J.S. : I’ve raised a lot of money for charity with my art. So after that, Korbel Champagne commissioned me to do a champagne bottle for them. When that launched, Korbel put on one of my first art shows. That particular bottle of champagne won a whole bunch of awards for the best advertising design.

Meanwhile, I was working for Clairol Hair Color, and the art director for Clairol loved my art so much that I was asked for permission to use one of my images for a special campaign that they did.

About the same time, Escada asked if they could use another one of my images for a silk scarf, which they sold at special locations for charity. Then they showed some of my art in various Escada boutiques in Dallas and Los Angeles at special private receptions. And they even took my art to Russia and showed it there, and sold it there for children’s charities.

So basically, a lot has happened. Finally, I was approached by major dealers to be represented. I waited a while and then I found someone who I really trusted and felt would be promoting me as an artist, rather than a celebrity artist.

I worked with Titus Fine Arts, Michael Shorts, for the last three years. I’ve done abut 40 shows around the country. And now, I’m being represented by Coral Canyon Publishing, which is actually our own company. I hired the person who had done all of the work at Titus, and she now works full-time on my art projects. She’s doing everything.

 

S.K. : And she’s associated with Simic Galleries?

J.S. : Yes. Simic had already shown my art in various locations and one quite well. Now, they want me to be shown full-time in all their galleries.

 

S.K. : Oh, excellent.

J.S. : So this was a really good show, incredibly successful. I think we sold more than 70 pieces. My next show with Simic is in Carmel, California.

 

S.K. : It sounds as if you had a great feeling about the exhibit, and that it went well. Are there any particular reasons why you think this one went so well?

J.S.: I don’t know. It’s always different images that sell. But there were a number of people, I think, who came to the show, prepared to be quite critical: art teachers, fellow artists, and even someone from the local museum. I think they were pleasantly surprised, which was really nice. And then there were those private individuals to whom, for whatever reason, certain pieces spoke to them and they decided that they had to have them in their homes. So that left me with a very positive feeling.

 

S.K.: What would you say, Jane, are your favorites, one or two of your favorite works?

J.S.: They always ask me that about my acting, as well. It’s a hard question to answer. It’s usually the one I’m working on, the most recent piece.

But I think one of the most successful pieces was one called El Salvador. It’s a painted ceramic jug I bought when I was working with UNICEF in El Salvador.  I painted a still life, a very colorful piece featuring that jug.

I also have another piece called Flowers in a Blue Jug that was very successful at the show. However, some of my favorite pieces didn’t sell.

 

S.K.: Interesting.

J.S.: In fact, I am absolutely no judge of my own work. I shouldn’t be asked to evaluate it. Sometimes a piece that I don’t think is as strong is a piece that many people fight over and I have to do two of them.

But I do a limited edition, using  the Giclee process, of various pieces. The “Mothers and Children” and “Children on the Beach” are very successful. In fact, they were very successful at this show. The first painting that sold was an original of a mother on a beach holding a baby.

 

S.K.: And interestingly enough, I can imagine that creating this art is like creating a baby and giving away your babies.

J.S.: I know. I’m very, very reluctant to sell them. I really am. But I always say to people, when they buy my originals, “I know where it is, maybe I can come visit it some day.” When I discovered how brilliantly you can reproduce an original painting with the Giclee process, I realized that if I couldn’t tell the difference between the Giclee and the original, it was good enough for me and it would be good enough for anyone buying the piece. So I do very small editions. I am meticulous about each Giclee. I don’t do Giclees for everything that I do. I only do very specific pieces.

I have a bunch of Giclees in my house. They are pieces that were sold. I can’t tell the difference between my originals and my Giclees.

 

S.K.: Interesting. Finally, how would you describe your painting style and genre? I know you mentioned watercolor, but do you use other media?

J.S.: I paint in oils, I do pastels, and I paint in watercolor. I don’t paint in acrylic. I use pen and inks as well. And I’ve started sculpting. In fact, at the moment we’re making my sass-bronze, which is a half-life-sized piece of a naked woman, a nude model.

I think I’ve been referred to as a colorist, because of my use of color. Some people say that I am an impressionist-colorist. But I would be pleased with the comment that the buyers at Scottsdale said—these paintings made them happy.

So I think I paint joy and I paint hope and I paint the natural beauty that I see. I paint landscapes that have meaning to me, places where I live or places that I’ve visited that are spectacularly beautiful. And I paint mothers and the innocence of children. I paint individual flowers. There’s something exceptional and extraordinary to me about an individual bloom. I am very successful with those particular images, and I love studying them. Nature has such incredible colors, that just to interpret one single blossom of a flower, to me, is a portrait of a character, of a personality.

 

S.K.: Absolutely. We talked about taking time to smell the roses, and doing it one by one. So it was a real treat, and I can certainly attest to the joy that one sees in the paintings.

J.S.: I think that’s what many people respond to. For me, it’s quite exciting. An 85-year-ofd woman bought one of my paintings. She now lives in a retirement home, and this painting is hanging in her new home.

S.K.: How gratifying.

J.S.: And she also bought it as an heirloom for one of her grandchildren. She wanted to know that, when she passes, this particular painting will be a special gift to her grandson. And I thought that was really quite touching.

 

S.K.: Absolutely.

J.S.: I think a number of people who came and bought at the gallery, were buying for family members as well as for themselves.

And then there was another couple who told me that it was the first piece of anything that they had bought for their new home. That’s pretty exciting too, because obviously the painting spoke to them and they wanted to key off of that painting, in terms of inspiration for the color scheme of the house.

 

S.K.: Absolutely. And I find that story of the 85-year-old grandmother very touching.

J.S.: It was very touching. And do you know what? It spoke to her. She came in and she saw the painting, and she said, “That is the painting I want.”

 

S.K.: Do you recall which painting that was?

J.S.: Yes. It was a floral arrangement in a cobalt blue vase. It was an original, and it’s a vase that almost looks like an urn. The vase name is Bristol glass in England, and I painted this one in England. It has a lot of really interesting flowers in it, including unusual flowers such as thistles.

 

S.K.: I recall it. So you have an upcoming event in Carmel?

J.S.: I do. The pieces that are here right now will be moved to Carmel. So if people are interested in them, there’s a lot to sell. We’re trying to replenish our stock and sell orders as we speak.

 

S.K.: Very good. And is there a website?

J.S.: Yes, JaneSeymour.com. If people go to that and if they go to JaneSeymourArt, they will be directly in contact with Susan Nagy-Luks. She is my representative.

 

S.K.: Got it.

J.S.: She’s at Coral Canyon Publishing, the company that presents my art.

I’ve been invited next year to tour Australia and New Zealand with my art. I showed in New York a couple of weeks ago, at an Art Expo, which is attended by dealers from all over the world. There was quite an enthusiastic response. It’s a question of finding time to do all of it.

 

S.K.: Absolutely.

J.S.: But one of my greatest surprises was when I was honored by the Queen with the Order of the Knighthood.

 

S.K.: When was this?

J.S.: That was in 2000. I was made an OBE, and Officer of the British Empire. That was for representing Britain charitably and artistically. So I have a title that I almost never use: Jane Seymour, OBE.

 

 

S.K.: What a marvelous way to be honored!

J.S.: Yes! That was a huge honor for me. When your own people honor you, it’s very special.

 

S.K.: It’s a valuable reflection to know that your contributions are being acknowledged. Where were your born?

J.S.: I was born in London. I don’t know if you’re aware that I design home furnishings, and children’s and women’s clothing as well.  It’s a huge business. I do home furnishings, everything from furniture to bedroom and bathroom and tabletop.

I have two collections out already: Jane Seymour’s Catherine’s Court Collection and then the Malibu, which is called the Coral Canyon Collection.

And I also do children’s clothing and hand-paint dresses and things like that for little children. And I’ve been doing a women’s collection for another company called Crossing Point, which is a catalog company. A number of my watercolors were used as fabrics and my designs were used for embroideries. That’s the other side of my life. And that’s really, again, why I think the art will become even more collectible, because it’s basically the basis for all of these other collections. And…I’ve just been offered a movie. It’s called the “The Wedding Crashers.”

 

S.K.: Wonderful! I certainly appreciate your time. *****

 

I acknowledge the lack of direct connection between dream-related experience and Jane’s life in this interview and will attempt a follow-up interview which focuses more on her dream life, if readers (and Jane) show an interest. Thanks to Stanley Krippner for submitting the interview (Ed.)