Cara Heard
Teacher / Instructor; Visual Artist: Painting
Lush Art is owned and operated by Cara Heard. It has been a labor of love and lots of hours of work. Lush Art is Cara's vision of how a paint and sip studio should be, and she didn't want to be part of a franchise. When you come to Lush Art you are treated like family, not like a number going to a corporate office.
Cara wants to provide a place for people to experience art without any stigmas. Cara thinks art should be available to everyone of all skill levels to provide comfort, a creative outlet, relaxation, and a place to escape from reality. You can do that either by coming alone or coming with a group of friends or family.
Cara loves art of different forms. She was a cosmetologist for several years and loved that aspect of art. She has painted for several years and loves the creativity of it. She can be found on Pinterest pinning all sorts of 'art' from recipes, to fashion, to art, to snarky comments.
While living in North Carolina and enjoying drinks with her friend, Jodie (an art teacher), they decided to explore the paint and sip concept in their small town. They each had small at home painting businesses and wanted to create a company that reflected the two of them. The name of Lush Art was created because Cara and Jodie enjoy a good adult beverage and joked they were "Lushes". They started small by just inviting friends. Those friends told friends and the idea soon became a fun side job. They taught classes in people's homes and at local country clubs.
Cara and her family moved to Georgia in September 2013 where her husband had accepted a new job. As soon as Cara arrived in Warner Robins she knew she wanted to expand the Lush Art idea. After researching locations she decided on Plantation Mill since there were so many residential homes nearby, Monkey Joe's provided a built in audience of mom's taking their children to bounce and play, and Classic nail salon provided a good audience of target customers as well.
Cara grew up in Arkansas and lived 6 years in North Carolina. She jokes she has made a Southern Tour, now that she calls Georgia home. She enjoys the Pecan groves, the Middle Georgia sunsets especially while sitting at the fire pit at Houston Lake Country Club, the friendliness of Warner Robins, the support she has been given by her customers.
She loves beer, coffee, Young Living Lemon Oil in her water, lipgloss, painting, reading trashy romance novels, traveling, Adam Scott the golfer, animals, her friends and family, riding around in her jeep when the weather is nice, and sharing her love of fun art with others. She dislikes uncomfortable clothes, dry lips, brown alcohol, those silly family stickers on people's cars, grand gestures and lovey dovey posts on Facebook, rudeness, and people that hurt others.
She would rather text, email, send smoke signals, facebook, pinterest, instagram, etc. than talk on the phone or go to the post office.
If you want big technical terms and stuffiness, Lush Art isn't for you. Cara breaks art down in step by step instruction and loves using the words swoosh and smoosh while painting. You'll often find her teaching with a beer in one hand and a paint brush in the other. She can be sarcastic and silly and loves to laugh and make others laugh, even if it's at her expense. The last thing she would want is for anyone to find art intimidating, so come in with your inexperienced self and ask what you think are silly questions. That is what Lush Art is for. Have a drink, or don't (no one will hold that against you), relax, unwind (or un-wine), and create something you can hang on the wall and that will remind you of the experience.
Cara is a big believer that art should be fun. She prefers to paint bright, happy, art which often includes animals as inspiration. She likes to interpret them a little away from reality and more toward fun. While she understands there is a place for dark, serious art, Lush Art isn't that place. She loves art that contains few hard straight lines and more of an easy flow.
Cara wants Lush Art to be for anyone (man, woman, and child), but the mainstay will always to be providing a place to encourage women, to give women a place to escape and create without someone nagging them, pulling at them, asking of them.
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