Naples, Florida, inspires Amy Moglia Heuerman’s life and art. Since moving to the town in 2013 after many years of visits, the lifelong artist has made a substantial impact on both the art scene and in philanthropic circles, achieving recognition for her paintings, generosity and ebullient spirit. Her commitment to the community is evident in the recent opening of Amy Art, a studio and gallery in Naples' Design District on 10th Street South.
The versatile artist originally gained national recognition as a successful children’s illustrator of games, puzzles, toys, and books through her Bear Hug Designs company, which she retired after a 20-plus-year run upon moving to Naples. Living close to the Gulf awakened her innate passion for sky and sea, now fully realized in her stunning seascapes. Her paintings are often oversized, richly layered abstracts that evoke serenity. Dominated by a palette of blues in infinite hues, the paintings invite viewers to emotionally respond to the moods and colors of clouds and rolling tides, rendered with her mastery of palette knives, scrapers, and brushes.
Amy was moved during the pandemic and resulting quarantine to paint a series of whimsical figures that express the “alone but together” zeitgeist of the times. The solitary figures, pictured singly on the canvas or in physically distanced groups, have been greeted enthusiastically by the local media and art collectors.
More recently, Amy is focusing on her abstract paintings which have a broader palette than her well-known work and evoke floral bouquets.
Amy's ethos for giving and community involvement has led her to donate her time and talent to organizations such as Guadalupe Center. She was a fixture at the Immokalee-based Center for three months while hand-painting a 30-foot mural of a flowering garden in the children’s reading room, which is now named in Heuerman’s honor. The mission of Guadalupe Center is "to break the cycle of poverty through education for the children of Immokalee."
Amy was a featured artist on the 2019 Artis Naples’ annual studio tour, and participated in several auction events organized by the Legal Aid Society. She also benefits the American Cancer Society and the Naples Botanical Garden, where she serves on the Sustaining Leadership Council.
In Bay Harbor, Michigan, Amy's summer home, she maintains a studio and gallery on the village's Main Street, and is a supporter of the Great Lakes Center for the Arts, where three of her paintings are on display in the Center's public areas.
Take five minutes to enjoy a video that captures Amy's charmed imagination. Hear her talk about her process as a children's illustrator, her art form before becoming a painter of coastal abstracts. Amy relates her earliest experiences with capturing her vivid visual imagination.
"My intention is to inspire feeling with imagination and color. I favor a blue palette. Blue is peaceful, calm, and encourages an open mind. My lifelong love for sky and water translates into abstracts with promising horizons. I work toward achieving the sweeping motion of clouds and tides through textured layering with tools ranging from brushes to palette knives to sponges to wallpaper scrapers and other hardware. My process evolves to reveal my state of being that I hope will uplift viewers. I paint in Naples, Florida, in my studio and showroom near the Gulf of Mexico, and in Bay Harbor, Michigan, near Lake Michigan, where I also have a gallery and studio in the Village at Bay Harbor."