Check out Anna Sadler’s Artwork

Today we’d like to introduce you to Anna Sadler.

Anna, we’d love to hear your story and how you got to where you are today both personally and as an artist.
I was always encouraged by my parents to explore my love of drawing and painting from a very young age. I have passionately spent most of my life in one creative endeavor to another.

From high school, I enrolled in a college for fashion design and illustration, though after a few years, I realized that this was not the right outlet for my creativity.

Fast forward a few years, I decided to jump onto the growing trend [at the time] for sponging, ragging and stenciling walls. I think I painted all my family and friends homes for practice and no pay… but the experiences gave me the ‘bug” to follow this as a career choice, and I knew then that I had found what I was searching for!

I had the opportunity to move to the South of France in the early ’90s, and together with my ex-husband, owned and operated two art galleries in Monte Carlo. Through the gallery, we met many world-renowned artists, and I had the opportunity to spend time and get to know many of our international clientele.

One summer I participated in a summer-long watercolor and illustration class with Ringo Starr and his lovely wife, Barbara Bach. They were clients of the gallery as was Prince Albert and Princess Caroline of Monaco. Many well-known Formula One race car drivers, Saudi sheiks, Italian counts, English lords and countless art dealers, heads of auction houses, sports players, celebrities, diplomats and a mix of interesting people gather from all around the world in the tiny principality of Monaco. I will never forget these experiences as they were life changing!

I owe so much to my two truly exceptional parents. They were professional ballerinas that lived all over the world. They ignited my passion for travel and living abroad. My first solo trip to South America extended four months, discovering Buenos Aires, Rio de Janeiro, Bogota Columbia and parts of Uruguay. Later came  Eastern Europe, to learn about my Hungarian roots, and then packing my bags and crossing the ocean to explore Italy and the South of France. This opened my eyes to seek inspiration from history, architecture, the beautiful vistas and of course the many wonderful people I have crossed paths with.

Many years later, finding myself a single Mom, I moved back to Canada with my young daughter, to be near my family. Circumstances led me to join a local gym where I met my husband Scott. We connected on a professional client/trainer relationship, which quickly grew to something much more.

Scott’s background prior to becoming a personal trainer was his 16 years as a police officer in Toronto, Canada. He also returned to Montreal to  be near his family, who lived in the small town where he and I met. I know he never could have imagined this crazy artistic lifestyle and world I pulled him into, yet today, “Anna and Scott” is spoken as if one name, and together we are “Surface Refinements,” a Scottsdale based decorative painting company.

We’d love to hear more about your art. what do you do? Why? And what do you hope others will take away from your work?
We are a decorative painting company that creates artistic finishes for walls, ceilings, furniture {such as vanities} . We also create custom large scale art on canvas, and do highly realistic antiquing of mirrors, far more authentic in nature than commercially “antiqued” mirrors. We produce beautiful aged patina on mirrors, and we can also incorporate pattern within the mirror, which in our trade is referred to as “Eglomise”, essentially reverse glass painting.

What we are NOT are faux finishers, which has become such a dated description { and four letter word!} that conjures up images of sponging ragging and glazing.
Our industry has evolved incredibly over the past few years, and what we create are unique high-end luxurious applications of finishes, mostly contemporary in nature, organic, artistic, textural and custom designed.

One of the sources of inspiration are high-end wall coverings. There are some beautiful papers on the market no doubt, but where we raise and elevate the bar, is that our finishes are all hand applied, we can customize scale to each space, color, pattern, and best of all, provide a seamless application that many times in wall coverings takes away from the beauty of the finished product. We can reproduce almost any look, adding our own twist and signature to truly create something one of a kind for our clients and designers.

We have an endless array of products that we employ in creating a finish, everything from actual mica flakes, glass beads, glitters, patterned foils, metallic and various other unique plasters, Italian Venetian plasters, Swarovski crystals, gold and silver leaf, pigmented mica powders, etc.

We work directly with clients and collaborate with interior designers, builders, and architects.

For private clients, we will make an appointment to meet out at the clients home, bringing several portfolio cases with our sample boards, and then do a walk through. We will spend time with the client and discuss the various options and sample selections for enhancing and showcasing their space, and offer suggestions based on lifestyle, furnishings, expectations, and budgets. We look for opportunities and ways to bring value and personal experience. Our clients are after all entrusting us with their very personal spaces, and we always strive to surpass their expectations.

In the case of working within the trades with designers, we will meet with a designer, take a look at their storyboards, and run through sample selections for their presentations. If we don’t have the right color in an existing sample or need to modify a pattern or texture, custom samples will be created once we are contracted to do the work.

Each of our projects requires extensive preparation and research. We want every detail to be covered, even the minutest so that we can create something special, memorable and timeless. It is so rewarding creating something that often starts with a sketch, a slip of fabric, an inspiration photograph and then realizing and bringing that vision to life. Decorative painting is all encompassing and ever evolving. It’s finding inspiration from our surroundings and life experiences. It’s being able to trust your intuition and vision and projecting that into a space to create a feeling and environment for our clients.

We want to feel three things every morning before we start our day: energized, inspired and optimistic. We want to greet the day enthusiastic and creative, as our artistry comes from our hearts. Going to sleep, we want to feel accomplished and proud. This is the foundation on how we run our business. These are key factors and what drives us to excel and exceed even our own expectations.

What do you think is the biggest challenge facing artists today?
Our job is hard work. It is taxing artistically, emotionally and physically. We have to perform at 100% capacity almost every day. Some weeks go perfectly planned, other weeks we lose countless hours of sleep strategizing artistic techniques, product performance, timelines, scheduling, client satisfaction, etc. the list is endless.

Being self-employed has its advantages, but it can be very hard. Every decision we make regarding our business has been contemplated, analyzed at least 150 times in our heads. We spend countless hours behind the scenes, planning, designing, researching and finally executing the finishes. Therefore when an unintentional mistake happens, whether it be product malfunction, a scheduling error, a technique flaw or the temporary unhappiness of a client or designer, we take it very personally and will do everything possible to make things right.

Being self-employed , the clock doesn’t stop at 5 pm, nor does it usually stop on Friday afternoon for the weekend. Our minds are always engaged in one way or another!

In addition, having both people depend on the same income can be a very terrifying added stress at times. It takes a lot to find a healthy live/work balance, and I am guilty of that tipping the scales on the work side. I am still working on this!

Does the love of our work outweigh the stress, exhaustion and, unpredictability we face on an almost daily basis? Absolutely! We have been blessed with wonderful, appreciative, generous clients and many amazing and talented interior designers who we have forged relationships with that have the most creative ideas and bring out the best in us. We relish a challenge and aim for the impossible!

Do you have any events or exhibitions coming up? Where would one go to see more of your work? How can people support you and your artwork?
We work mainly in the high-end residential market. We are either contracted by interior designers, builders and architects or we are contacted directly by private clients.

Word of mouth is the greatest compliment, and we are always grateful to the clients that have had our work in their homes and then recommend us to their friends. A few years back we worked almost exclusively in one community for a 2.5 yr period as a result of one friend recommending us to another and another and so on.

We have also worked on three spas and a restaurant in Scottsdale. We would love to specialize in the spa market; these are spaces that give us the opportunity to create everything from an organic serene atmosphere to ultra-glamorous walls and ceilings. The bonus is that our work is in a public space for many people to see on a daily basis.

We are quite active on social media, and our work can be seen on Instagram and our Facebook business page, both under Surface Refinements. We try and update as often as possible. People do like to follow our projects!

Contact Info:

• Phone: 480 313 3191
• Email: [email protected]
• Instagram: Surface Refinements
• Facebook: Surface Refinements

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