Jane Seymour talks about art exhibition in Montgomery, PA

Of all the things Jane Seymour is — actress, dancer, painter, author, philanthropist and entrepreneur with jewelry and skin care lines — what she is mostly is a mom, says the Montgomery News.

“My kids, they were getting that teenage acne thing,” said Seymour, who has twin sons with husband James Keach. “I put them on my skin care program [Natural Advantage] and their skin is perfect. Try teaching 14-year-old boys that they need to do skin care. It was a fight, but when they got immediate results and the girls started looking at them differently, they were like, ‘Mom, can I have some more of that stuff?’ ”

But the inspiration for nearly everything Seymour does these days comes from her art, and that’s what local fans will get to see when she presents two exhibitions of her work from 6 to 9 p.m. Feb. 12 and from 6 to 9 p.m. Feb. 13 at Wentworth Gallery in the King of Prussia Mall.

This is Seymour’s second appearance in as many years at the gallery, with large and enthusiastic crowds greeting her and plunking down some serious coin last year to own a personal piece of work from the award-winning actress.

“I met a lot of people at the gallery last year,” said Seymour in a recent telephone interview from her home in sunny and warm Malibu, Calif. “There are a lot of collectors in the area, which is great.

“But I think what really speaks to people is that the pieces tell stories. Every piece I’ve done is a little piece of me, it’s a little piece of my experience on this planet,” she said. “More often than not it speaks to someone else in their own unique way. They’ll see a painting I’ve done that has one meaning to me and it will have a very profound meaning to them.”

Seymour, who will turn 59 a few days after her King of Prussia appearance, started painting as a way of healing herself after going through a messy divorce. At the time, she was experiencing some deep financial difficulties and her life was completely unmanageable, she said.

“First of all, [the art] completely turned my life around for the better,” she said. “What came of that was the reintroduction of something I loved as a kid, which was art. And then the art has led to other things, being able to really financially help and also bring awareness to major issues in the world.”

Seymour is the spokeswoman for World Water Issues and has worked extensively with the American Red Cross and St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital, providing pieces of art that can be used to raise funds for those groups. In 2008, she was honored by the Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation for her work with people with disabilities.

“I originally started painting as a kind of healing for myself,” she said. “It then became my passion. Really, I need to do it for me. Probably the most personal thing anyone could ever have from me is a painting.”

Seymour calls it “opening her heart,” and because of that, she created an “open heart” series of paintings, which depicts hearts in various designs without closed borders. That led to a line of open heart jewelry that has been on the market for a few years and found exclusively at Kay’s and Jared’s stores.

The most recent line, called “Inspirations,” has two pieces called “Open Heart Angel” and “Peace, Love and Open Heart.” Seymour will have the original art that inspired those two pieces with her in King of Prussia.

Also, because the people she meets at gallery events have incredible personal stories they like to share with her, Seymour has started the Web site www.keepanopenheart.com, where people are invited to send either videos or written stories about how opening their hearts has helped them in their lives.

“The times we’re in right now, we’re all hoping and praying that things are going to get better,” she said. “When you hear great stories about how people have taken great struggle and turned it into something meaningful to help others and in doing so help themselves, it’s very heartwarming.”

Of course, Seymour is remembered by fans for her roles in such films as “Wedding Crashers” and as a Bond girl in “Live and Let Die” and she received a Golden Globe for her role as Dr. Michaela “Mike” Quinn in the long-running television series “Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman.” She also appeared in season five of “Dancing with the Stars.”

Despite her many endeavors, she remains involved in acting. She currently has four independent movies completed, one of which is called “Wake” that she said has a distributor. Also in the can are films called “Driving Lessons,” which she said she hasn’t yet seen, and two comedies, “The Assistants” and “Freeloaders.”

“In the last two, I played different characters, but both with this very short, platinum blonde wig. So I’m pretty much unrecognizable,” she said. “I’ve been offered some other movies, but nothing that I’ve gotten excited enough about that I’m willing to go away from my family for long periods of time. So when I find something that I am excited to do and that I feel I can fit into the rest of my life, I kind of juggle stuff.”

Ah, yes, the juggling of stuff. For someone so busy, just how does she have time for keeping herself looking so fabulously beautiful?

“I eat reasonably carefully. We have an organic garden and we grow our own vegetables,” she said. “It’s about maintenance rather than doing anything serious. I don’t do major diets, I try to eat sensibly and I try to stay healthy. I’m very busy, so I don’t actually have time to have a sick day. So I don’t have sick days.”

And through it all, it seems like she never stops. Seymour is the official painter for the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, British Columbia, and just at the beginning of February, launched a line of home furnishings called “JS Designs” at a trade show in Las Vegas that she expects to be in stores this summer.

In fact, when she’s in the Philadelphia area this time, she hopes to speak to Jane Golden, executive director of the City of Philadelphia’s Mural Arts Program.

“Jane has invited me to come and do a major mural with her,” said Seymour. “She wants me to spend three days there painting, so I’m going to be discussing that with her when I come to Philadelphia. I feel very strongly about her program. What she’s doing is amazing.”

Again, all roads lead to the art and the open heart concept.

“I think the open heart theme is a little more abstract, but it has meaning behind it and brings some sort of energy with it,” said Seymour. “I really can’t separate the moviemaking from dancing, from painting and sculpting, from designing, from any of that stuff because if it’s real, it speaks. If it’s fake, it doesn’t.

“If it’s not something that’s genuinely from me, it’s technical and it doesn’t have emotion. And I think what people find in my work is emotion. Since that’s what I’m known for — being able to communicate emotion — I think that’s what people like in my artwork, so they’re very happy to have it hanging somewhere in their homes.”

Jane Seymour is appearing at at Wentworth Gallery,

406 Mall Blvd.,
King of Prussia, PA 19406,

Friday & Saturday,
Feb. 12 & 13, 6 – 9 p.m.

Discuss this news here...