@charissaowensart on Instagram

My name is Charissa Owens and I am an abstract expressionist artist and a native of Alexandria, Louisiana. I grew up in a large, close knit family, spending a lot of time outside, as I always loved nature. Inspired by the colors and textures in the world around me, I am thankful that Louisiana has always been my home because it affords me an incredible and diverse palette from which to learn and grow.

I have always been fascinated by art, and consistently worked with my hands to create! This began in elementary school when my uncle, an architect, gave an art lesson to my class and then continued to share his love of drawing and art with me. I would sit on his drafting table and draw flowers as he taught me drawing techniques. I studied art in high school and cultivated it further in college, ultimately earning a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Graphic Design. Upon graduation, I worked as a Graphic Designer for 4 years, and then pursued my other passion of teaching children and taught Kindergarten in the Rapides Parish School System.

As an educator, I prioritized making school fun for my students and kept my love of art alive by incorporating it into my daily routine of teaching reading and math. While taking a year off from teaching, I worked as the graphic designer, marketing and social media manager for a clothing company. This experience reawakened more of my creative side and a desire to continue on this artistic journey. I returned to teaching and was able to combine my love of art with teaching children, by now serving as a Talented Visual Arts educator for the Rapides Parish school system. I am passionately focused on growing the love of art for our next generation of artists.

In between being a wife, a mother to 3, and working my full-time job as an art teacher, I find time to create in the evenings and on the weekends in my home studio and in my studio at River Oaks Arts Center. I began my art career by hand painting pillows with nature scenes in 2020, and since then, have been commissioned to create multiple abstract, watercolor, and multimedia pieces that are now on display in homes and businesses throughout the state and beyond the borders of Louisiana. My artwork is intuitive and incorporates a soft color palette that is infused with a sense of elegance, peace and serenity. I explore delicate layering of muted colors and work with a myriad of hues, tones, tints, and shades. As an artist I strive for each individual piece to portray a sophisticated elegance and simplicity that brings warmth to wherever it is displayed. 

My love for Art History, textiles, and fashion gives some influence, but my main inspiration comes from past years as a graphic designer and a love of the textures found in nature. I often see composition and patterns on objects in the world around me that find their way onto my canvas in new and different ways. I love the continuously evolving process of multimedia layering by using a variety of unexpected tools and creating slight hints of the underpainting that peep out in the piece. Art is what I live and breathe in my everyday life, constantly striving to capture the wonder of what I see to share with others. I draw inspiration from simple things in life that create complex, delicate, and intricate patterns. I feel keen observation, spontaneity, and intuition are key factors to my creative process.

Most recently, I will be showing a piece at the juried Tom Peyton Memorial Arts Festival, I have art that can be seen on set with NBC Universal Studios, had a piece featured in the PAUSE exhibit at the Alexandria Museum of Art, had a piece in The Artists Spotlight Show at River Oaks Arts Center and have been featured in the online gallery with The Scouted Studio.

To see more of my art, you can find me on Facebook and Instagram at @charissaowensart.

Please contact me if you are interested in creating a custom commission piece for your space.