Q&A with Krista Litz of KCL Studio
Knowing Krista has made my daily life full of smiles and creativity! We immediately connected when we first met waiting outside of school for our little ones. So many wonderful common threads including being military spouses, artists and loving our community! This made for an instant new friendship that I am eternally grateful for! Everyone who meets Krista feels her passion for her art, learning and family!
Tell us a bit about yourself! Where are you from and how did you end up in the Alexandria area?
I am originally from Cincinnati, Ohio, where I grew up surrounded by a large and wonderful family. I attended the University of Cincinnati and earned my Bachelor of Fine Arts from the College of Design, Architecture, Art, and Planning (DAAP). After graduation, I moved to Chicago, where I received my graduate degree from DePaul University.
I spent five wonderful years in Chicago developing my artistic vision, networking, and exhibiting my work professionally. While living there, I met my husband, and soon after we began moving around the world for his career. I have had the privilege of living in California, Oklahoma, Kentucky, Virginia, San Salvador, El Salvador, and Asunción, Paraguay.
We moved to Alexandria two years ago after many years overseas and have truly found a home here for ourselves and our children. This summer, we will be relocating to Madrid, Spain, with hopes of returning to Alexandria permanently someday.
What is one of the greatest lessons you learned during your time in art school?
I had a wonderful painting professor named Frank Herman who assigned a project in Painting II that required us to paint over the same canvas for an entire semester. By the end of the course, that painting had gone through seventeen different iterations.
Each time we completed a painting, what could have been considered a finished piece of artwork we were required to paint directly over it and begin again. The lesson was intended to teach us not to become overly precious about our work and to embrace the creative process rather than the final product.
That experience was transformative for me. It taught me to paint without fear and to trust that another good idea would always come. It also taught me how to let go of a completed piece and allow it to live with someone else while making space for new work. It was a pivotal moment in learning both how to create freely and how to move forward creatively.
How did you first get started painting flowers?
My husband was working at the U.S. Embassy in San Salvador, El Salvador, and our family joined him there. At the time, I had a nine-month-old baby and a three- year-old daughter. One day, while we were at the embassy for an event, I found myself doing what many parents of young children do in places not designed for toddlers, I was wandering the grounds trying to keep them entertained. As we walked, my daughter suddenly stopped and pointed to the most beautiful flower I had ever seen.
We paused to admire it together, getting close enough to touch it and experience it the way only a child can, as if seeing something for the very first time. I took a photograph of the flower with an overwhelming desire to paint it, and when I returned home, I did exactly that.
That painting became both a portrait of a flower and a portrait of a moment I never wanted to forget. It ultimately launched the body of work I create today. Each of my paintings is intended to be a floral portrait, inviting viewers to experience flowers up close and personally, just as my daughter experienced that very first bloom.
You have a philosophy that everyone can learn to paint. What makes you believe that, and how do you suggest people get started if they’re interested in learning how to?
I truly believe that anyone can learn to paint. More importantly, I believe it is a beautiful skill to develop and utilize when life feels heavy and you need a creative escape.
Recently, I created a watercolor workbook kit designed to make painting accessible for everyone from children to adults. The workbook provides step-by-step painting tutorials with both written and visual instructions that naturally guide beginners through the process.
The kit includes directions for nine paintings on artist quality paper, along with a curated set of professional watercolor paints that correspond directly with the lessons. I developed the concept after hosting a painting class for my daughter’s Girl Scout troop. I created the tutorials in the same way I later structured the workbook, and the class was such a success that I wanted to recreate that experience for others.
Art has been a tremendous gift in my life, and I have always felt a desire to share it. This workbook is one way I can help others discover the joy and confidence that come from creating something beautiful with their own hands.
Being from a military family, you must have moved a lot. What is one of your favorite places you have lived?
We have moved nine times in the last thirteen years, so I have certainly had the opportunity to experience many places, each uniquely special in its own way.
My favorite and most inspiring posting was Asunción, Paraguay. It is such an underrated place with incredible beauty, rich history, and warm, welcoming people. I created hundreds of paintings while living there and found inspiration everywhere from the landscape to the culture and community around me. That said, every place we have lived has shaped both me and my work in meaningful ways. Beauty exists everywhere, and I am deeply grateful for the opportunity to discover what makes each place uniquely beautiful.
What do you love about Alexandria?
I have always had a deep love for history, and Alexandria feels like walking through American history. You can almost feel the stories of the people who have passed through these streets over generations.
My family has felt incredibly welcomed by this community, and it has been an ideal place to raise our children. I often tell my husband that living here feels like stepping into a Norman Rockwell painting.
Where can people purchase your art?
People can purchase my artwork directly through my website, kristalitz.com. My watercolor workbook, prints, and other products are also available through my Etsy shop, KCL Studio.
What is your favorite thing about what you do?
My favorite part of what I do is elevating the everyday beauty of a flower so that people have the opportunity to truly see it as if for the very first time.
I am living the dream I had as a child spending my days creating beauty and sharing it with others. I can think of few greater gifts than that.
