The Body in Motion

By Lucy Arnold, Art Editor

Stephanie Pyren Fortel of Jacksonville Branch has wide-ranging talents and travels. Working in oils, watercolors, pastels, and graphics, she has exhibited in France, Thailand, Holland, and throughout the United States.

In 1989, artist Jacques Harvey invited her to France to help re-create the famous “Barbizon School.” Her mural depicting the village of Barbizon has pride of place in a local restaurant, Le Royal. The American Animation Co. asked her to travel to Bangkok to teach background painting for “Tiny Toons” by Warner Bros. After her return to France, Pyren and her husband moved to California at the request of Warner Bros.’ licensing division. Jacksonville, Florida, is their current home and an endless source of inspiration for Pyren’s art.

Pyren was born in Pennsylvania but moved to California at age 10. It was there that she began her artistic career, winning many awards and honors. She earned a bachelor’s degree of fine arts from California State University at Northridge while working as a fashion illustrator and animation artist. She has illustrated four children’s books and worked in major animation studios in Los Angeles as a character designer and background painter. She has also taught life drawing, fashion illustration, and window display at Columbia College in South Carolina.

Intrigued by patterns and the flow of garments, Pyren says her early work was influenced by Aubrey Beardsley and the Old Masters.

“I am constantly studying the masters’ techniques of duplicating fabrics, the never-ending study of human anatomy, as well as the body in motion stemming from my early animation career and love of dance, one of the oldest forms of human connection,” she says.

Her energetic and haunting current figurative work, influenced by movement and dance, explores mankind’s spirit and connection to the elements of the natural world. She hopes her creations “evoke emotions, questions, love of life, and a spiritual connection for all who view them.”