Connie Engel has been creating art for as long as she can remember. “I started to draw with pencil on paper as a young child,” says the Claremont, CA native, recalling how she would sit in front of the television drawing cartoons. “Sketches and drawings with pencils became my favorite medium, until my interest grew to expressing my art on canvas with oils.”
As a young adult, Engel moved to Los Angeles to pursue a career as a commercial actress, a vocation that she enjoyed for many years. She married television executive producer Peter Engel—who found great success with Saved by the Bell and its various spin-offs—and the couple settled down with their two boys in Westwood Hills (although she and Peter are no longer married, they remain good friends).
Yet, Engel’s desire for art remained—fueled by her frequent international travels, where she would visit galleries and museums and continue to hone her craft. In 1995, Engel rented a small studio space above Maria’s Italian Kitchen in Brentwood Village, close to where the boys attended Brentwood School. “I would do commissioned work and have small gatherings,” she says. “My boys would walk over and hang once they were out of school. They’d get a slice of pizza and then we’d go home together.” By 2003, Engel’s career had taken off, and her work was displayed in national galleries such as Galerie Gabrie in Pasadena, Joseph Gierek Fine Art in Tulsa, Oklahoma and Twinhouse Gallery in Atlanta, Georgia.
Now, after more than 20 years as a prolific painter, Engel has opened her first-ever dedicated gallery, Connie Engel Art, on Montana Avenue in Santa Monica, where she now lives. “I knew it was perfect the moment I saw it,” Engel says of the chic warehouse-like space. “Two long walls hold my art with great lighting. It is simple, with no distractions so that the work has the center stage.”
The gallery is an ideal place to display Engel’s stunning original works, which are all created on quality canvas with acrylic paints and range from still life to realism to representationalism to abstract. “I love to paint anything from a tennis ball to the ocean,” says Engel, who is known for her masterful use of shadowing and often incorporates dark backgrounds and metallics so that the object itself pops. “I use anything I can to get the effect I desire. For instance, in my painting Docked, I used foam brushes to get the palette look. I like to build up paints to develop texture.” Engel—who is usually onsite at the gallery and has a painting studio in back—will also take commissions. “Recently, a lovely couple commissioned me to do a buck deer from a photo they took in Washington. Later, they asked me to paint their boat.”
Nearly a year after opening the gallery, Engel is loving this new chapter in her life. “It’s very fulfilling,” Engel says. “I am so grateful!”
Connie Engel Art; 1327 Montana Ave., Santa Monica; connieengelart.com
"I use anything I can to get the effect I desire. I like to build up paints to develop texture."