Art: Meet Kris Loya

Kris Loya. Just Keep Painting

Kris Loya is “kind of obsessed with flowers.” The 12-year Loudoun resident is a watercolorist with a specialty for floral paintings, who serves the community by teaching art through the Loudoun County Public Library. Persisting through the pandemic, Loya has had no problem taking classes virtually and representing the positive spirit and resilience of Loudoun County.

“It’s always been in my nature to just draw and paint; and, [when I was] a kid, my mom encouraged it,” Loya stated while reminiscing on her artisthood. Loya is the first known artist in her family line. With encouragement from her mother, Loya developed a love for art early on, studied it in high school, and taught herself much of what she knows today.

Watercolor, in particular, stuck with her. She explains how she discovered watercolors in childhood: “For kids, watercolors are available everywhere, and that’s what I had. Then, in high school, that was what was recommended.”

Loya’s love and excitement for the style never faded. She remarked, “I just really like the layered look. And how ethereal looking watercolor is with all those transparent layers. It just excites me to see watercolor. So that’s why I stuck with it.”

Nature has always been a huge inspiration for Loya. As a Carribean native, tropical flora and foliage were her first motivators, and started her obsession with flowers. Moving to Loudoun gave Loya a whole new variety of natural phenomena to replicate in her artwork.

“It was really interesting to me to see things die in the fall and the winter, since I’ve never had that experience, and then come right back to life in the spring. It still blows my mind completely that a tree that looks dead, you know, starts spreading little tiny buds, and then, different flowers that cycle through the year. It’s just hugely inspiring.”

Several years ago, Loya started teaching watercolor, and her distinct style of the artform, which she says is “just a little different.” She taught at a couple of different settings including the Round Hill Arts Center, The Clay and Metal Loft, and a mass of private lessons. Ultimately, Loya landed a partnership with

Loudoun County Public Library and began teaching in-person lessons at the venue in spring of 2018.

“That really allowed me to reach a huge audience. As you can imagine, lots of people rely on the library for everything, so I was able to help a lot of people get started with watercolor and that was really exciting to me.”

Since the initiation of the pandemic, her lessons have continued in a virtual setting, and Loya is honored to be one of many artists teaching through Loudoun County Libraries.

The transition to online classes was nearly effortless for Loya. In an act of what now seems like fate, she launched her first Skillshare class in February 2020, just weeks before the COVID-19 pandemic hit the U.S. and shut down in-person activities. Skillshare is an online learning community, where educational videos can be accessed through subscription. While the rest of us were trying to figure out how to maneuver Zoom, Loya was just fine-tuning her already established online process. Loya remarked, “I had the equipment, I had the setup. And so I was able to just immediately pick up and start.”

In a chat with Loya, we discussed favorite pieces (and equipment), advice, and the remarkable opportunities of Loudoun County living.

What is your favorite piece of artwork that you’ve made?

“I would say that I have favorites from different times and so there’s this piece that I created last year that I love. It’s maybe not my favorite of all time, but my favorite recent piece. You know, last year was tough. It was really different for a lot of people. I’m sure you had to deal with going to school online, which was weird, and so I really couldn’t make a whole lot of art last year with everything going on. I mean, yes, I had the free time, but I didn’t have the brain space for it. I had a show at the Middleburg library and I was able to create really great pieces, all in acrylic instead of watercolor, which was super different from me. The colors just kind of brought my world back to life after just being in this small little cocoon all year, and that was one of the few times that I actually ventured out of the house was to hang that artwork at the library. So yeah, so that’s my most special recent piece.”

Do you have a favorite paintbrush?

“I do have a favorite paintbrush. It’s really funny because watercolor brushes can be really expensive, insanely expensive. My favorite is a 3.99 [dollar] brush from Michaels, and I recommend it to everybody. It’s my favorite. And I mean I’ve even switched back and forth, and I always tend to gravitate to it. It’s called a Simply Simmons brush, and it’s an acrylic brush, but I use it for watercolor. It’s not made with any animal hair or anything, so it’s great for people who are vegan and love animals, and it’s just a great brush and handles very well. It’s really funny that, you know, people expect me to use really expensive equipment, and I go with this little 3.99 brush and they’re like, what?”

Has living in Loudoun County shaped your life or your career?

“Oh my gosh, yes. I feel like living in Loudoun County gave me the freedom to pursue art. You’re surrounded by so many amazing, amazing artists who have wonderful art careers. Prior to [moving to Loudoun], I didn’t see a whole lot of artists locally where I was from that made careers out of it. It was just sort of hobbyists. Coming here and seeing all these artists that have

these amazing art careers really sort of gave me that permission to pursue it in that way. There’s a lot of opportunity in Loudoun, and everybody sort of works together to help everybody out. It’s very much a small town feel in Loudoun, even though the county is so huge.”

What piece of advice do you have for aspiring artists, especially during this time?

“To keep painting. Now is a really good time to take classes from teachers that you couldn’t access otherwise because a lot of [artists] people that teach have taken their classes online. So you know, if you’ve thought about taking a class from an artist that you really admire that’s in Spain or Switzerland or somewhere, you can do that from your house in Loudoun County now. My advice is always to just keep painting and keep experimenting with different styles. And, you know, follow people that you like, and see what they’re doing. And a lot of times, artists are really open to answering questions about their process, so if there’s a piece of art that you see that you’re interested in, and you want to know how they did that, reach out and ask, you know, just send an email and people are happy to say, “Ooh yeah, this is what I used and this is how you do that or I have a class on it, [so] you can take my class.” Just don’t stop creating, don’t stop it. Whether it’s painting or drawing or throwing pots, or whatever your art is, just keep doing it. Because the more you do it, the more inspired you get.”

Kris Loya’s lessons can be accessed through https://www. krisloya.com. Loya will have artwork at the Gum Spring Library in July and August, and at the Rust Library in September and October.

@krisloyaart