Courtesy of Nicole D'Amore "My paintings are reflections of my soul, searching for truth in life," says Dorothea Heger, with one of her abstract art pieces. "I want the viewer to have to take a second look."

Dorothea Heger uses elements from nature in her semi-abstract artwork: sand, shells, leaves, grass and the sun itself.

"My intention in creating semi-abstract or abstract paintings is to capture the art of the natural world," Heger said. "The passion of organic beauty has been a lifelong inspiration for my art. I communicate in a language without words. My paintings are reflections of my soul, searching for truth in life."

She wants to engage the viewer in this quest for deeper understanding, she said. "I want the viewer to have to take a second look."

In her newest paintings, the "Beast" series, animal faces emerge from a colorful, abstract background on rice paper.

"The eyes are the soul of the painting," she said. "I like to have them look at you. Is it a dog, a wolf or something else? I want them to guess."

Many pieces are inspired by her dog, Charlie, her constant companion in her Newbury Park home studio.

Heger works in series and has also done hearts, shells, dream-like faces and celestial images called "Other Worlds."

She works in mixed media, ink and acrylic. She also has developed a technique she calls solar painting, in which she puts a sheet of watercolor paper in a pan, covering it with water and adding colored ink. She might put a piece of net on the paper, or sand, shells, leaves or other things from nature.

"I take it outside and put it in bright sunlight," she said. She keeps an eye on it to see if she needs to adjust the color. It's an all-day process and as the water evaporates, the pigment permeates the paper, producing a colorful, randomly patterned background.

From the patterns, she picks out shapes and builds her design from there, adding accents and details in watercolor pencil, charcoal or pastel.

"But the main thing happens outside," she said.

Heger has been working full time as an artist for the past seven years. She lived in Germany until about 10 years ago, when her husband's job brought the family to America.

"I was always interested in art; it was always part of my life," Heger said. She won an art competition in junior high school, but her father encouraged her to find a "real job" when she finished school, she said, so she became a medical technologist.

"But at night I would go to art classes at the adult school in watercolor and pastel just to learn the basic techniques," she said. After her three children were born, she became a stay-at-home mom. When they lived in Colorado, her children were older and she had more time, so she took classes at the Colorado Springs Fine Art Center.

"I started exhibiting and doing more and more paintings," she said. After moving to California in 2002, she took classes at the California Art Institute and joined the Westlake Village Art Guild and the Gold Coast Watercolor Society.

One of her paintings, a nautilus shell in a blue background titled "Break Through," won first place in a Westlake Village Art Guild show.

"It was also my breakthrough as an artist," Heger said. "It was the first painting that won an award." She painted it using a wet-in-wet technique with ink on watercolor paper, covering it with plastic wrap.

"When you take it off, you don't know what you will get," she said. "This is the fun of it.."

She is a member of the International Society of Experimental Artists and numerous other art organizations and is on the board of the Thousand Oaks Art Association.

"Barely a day goes by that I don't do something art-related," said Heger, who has won 19 awards in the past five years. "Art just fulfills me. It comes from my soul — it's basically what I feel, what I do. It's a never-ending story for me. It will go on my whole life."

One of Heger's paintings was chosen as the invitation piece for this year's "Splash" show, Sept. 7-30 at the Thousand Oaks Community Gallery. The theme for the show is "A Painting Within a Painting," and features work from artists at Phyllis J. Doyon's studio in Camarillo, where Heger paints every week.

The reception for "Splash 2007" is 5 to 8:30 p.m. Sept. 7 at 2331 Borchard Road, Newbury Park.

To see Heger's work, visit her Web site: www.dorothea-art.com.

— To recommend an artist to be profiled in this section, contact Nicole D'Amore at Artprofiles@roadrunner.com or 405-0364.