Her Life is Her Canvas

From her whimsically renovated 19th century forest green cottage with the purple trim, to the colorfully festive loft interior with spiral staircase, copiously painted Victorian furnishings covered in cabochon roses, to the walls of gracefully ornate mirrors; when you enter Phyllis Ingham’s Berkeley Lake home, you are immediately captured by the colorful atmosphere and you know that the person living there has made very deliberate artistic decisions about her environment.

There is no way that you could enter and not know that it is the home of an artist. It’s obvious that her life is her palate!

So alive with happy colors; her home epitomizes her playful personality and someone who is constantly expressing herself. ”I knew I wanted to be an artist when I received my first box of crayons in first grade” says the artist. “They were my favorite thing.”

Like most artists, the love of color in all of its facets in nature and décor became the dominating force of her life “All through high school, I was the one to do the Santas and to decorate for the holidays,” she said.

Coming from Dutch ancestry, Flemish painters Van Gogh, Gauguin and Vermeer have been her main influence, but she loves art in all its varying expressions and wonders. 

After graduating from the O’More School of Design in Franklin, Tenn., which she describes as having provided her a wonderful education in the arts, she ventured through many creative endeavors; including modeling, doing Interior Design with Jim Archibald one of Sarasota’s leading designers, taking a course in gourmet cooking and performing and directing in the theatre.

While living in Jamestown, NY, she did a stint at what is now called the Lucille Ball Theatre. She then spent many years redesigning houses and even took a course in how to analyze handwriting.  Ingham also spent years teaching first grade which she thoroughly enjoyed. “I loved my teaching,” she giggles, “I admit I took every opportunity to integrate painting, drawing or some kind of art project into our daily curriculum.”

Typical of an eclectic artistic personality, she says, “I go where my creative instinct leads me, if you are a truly creative person, you don’t just limit yourself to canvas, you are creative in your every aspect of your life.”

Ingham started taking her painting seriously 15 years ago and is now a confirmed watercolorist. She began by painting flowers, but became bored and went on to landscapes. She says, “I’m not like most artists who paint every day, I have to be inspired.”

 For the last three or four years, she’s been doing portraits and is still intrigued by the process. She often sits in restaurants sketching people, but she says, “I am never satisfied and am always trying to perfect my work.”