Marla Hoppenstedt

A lifelong love affair with art.

by

Visual & Performing Arts

Marla Hoppenstedt fell in love with art as a child, when she first opened Volume P of her parents’ World Book Encyclopedia. 

“I spent hours studying the beautiful pictures of paintings,” she said in a recent interview. 

A native of Winnsboro, Louisiana, Marla embarked on her journey to become an artist at nineteen, when she married David Hoppenstedt and moved to Austin to attend the University of Texas. 

“I studied printmaking,” she said. “The focus was on abstract art, but I’ve always loved realism. A country girl wanting to paint realism was not a good fit for UT.”

After a few years, Marla grew homesick. In 1980 she and David moved to Baton Rouge and enrolled at LSU. She completed her degree in drawing and painting, studying with such teachers as Michael Crespo, Libby Johnson, Robert Hausey, and Melody Guichet while David acquired a Ph.D. in economics and served as deputy director of the Louisiana Planning and Budget Office. 

In 1989, the couple moved to St. Francisville. “Our  two daughters grew up on Sage Hill Road,” said Marla. “We had an orchard with Asian pears, persimmons, and Mayhaw. We also kept goats.” 

When her girls were older, Marla began work as the shop manager of Grandmother’s Buttons, a combination button museum, gift shop, and jewelry studio located in a historic 1905 building that was formerly a bank. 

She worked alongside owner Susan Davis, and with Cynthia Nicholas, who designed the store’s Button Museum. “The three of us have remained steadfast friends,” said Marla. 

“Susan gave me the opportunity to work in virtually every aspect of Grandmother’s Buttons. I learned the wholesale and retail business from the ground up, including manufacturing and design. I also designed jewelry and picture frames for wholesale gift markets around the country. It was a great experience.” 

The Hoppenstedts purchased a second home in Baton Rouge in 2000. Shortly after, Nicholas, who was managing the Taylor Clark Gallery frame shop, persuaded Marla to join her there. “That gave me the opportunity to be surrounded by beautiful art as well as to learn a new craft: specialty framing,” said Marla. “I did not know anything about framing when I started. Cindy taught me all I needed to know. 

“I’ve always loved to learn new things. I’m definitely a do-it-yourself sort. I have a library of how-to books—sewing, embroidery, leaded glass, sandblasting, faux finishing, ceramics—just to name a few.”

The first order of business in framing, she said, “is how to take care of the art. How do you make a package to secure the work of art? Every single piece is different. You always have to think about how to make it archival.”

In 2014, after a dozen years with Taylor Clark, Marla opened her own business, Studio de Chêne on Perkins Road. The name, which means Studio of the Oaks, was inspired by the massive live oaks in front of the building.

“We kept passing by here and noticed a sign, so we said, ‘Let’s just check it out,’” said Marla, who shares the space with Nicholas’s small art gallery. “We said, ‘Let’s just start small, and maybe somebody will come.’ We bought about a thousand square feet, and we paid it off. Later we needed more work space, so we bought another thousand feet. We put a new floor in, added lights. You have to be able to see really well when you’re framing.” 

Word got around, and soon Marla had all the work she (and three part-time employees) could handle. “I’ve been busy the whole time we’ve been open.”

David is an integral part of the business, taking inventory and building frames for the shop. “I taught him how,” said Marla, “and now I can’t remember how to do it!” 

While framing work for museums and private clients, Marla has also been quietly developing her own body of work in oil paintings.

At White Light Night in 2008, her work was featured in a two-person show at Taylor Clark Gallery alongside art by the late photorealist painter Joseph Poche. Her work explored the idea of converging the past and the present through collaging Old Masters paintings. 

“I thought about how our world has become so fast-paced and media driven—constantly bombarded with information. How different are we today from the Old Masters? By dissecting familiar images of the past and reconstructing them into a new contemporary space, I wanted to create an illusion of the past converging with the present.”

A few years later, her oil painting Aubade (which Hoppenstedt translates to “Dawn Serenade”) took first place in the Louisiana Art & Artists’ Guild’s annual River Road Show. 

“My idea for the painting came from a photo I took of the sun filtering through the windows onto orchids at Lance Hayes Flowers,” she said. “As my work has evolved over the years, I still use many Old Masters techniques while exploring contemporary compositions.

“I start with a toned ground on canvas, then create a detailed drawing to give dimension. Then I build up the image gradually with thin layers of color. I also use strong contrasts of light and dark—a technique known as chiaroscuro.”

Recently, she has discovered the rewards of plein air painting in classes taught by Baton Rouge artist Charles Smith. 

“In the past, I used photos to create my artwork,” she said. “Outdoor painting has opened my eyes to a new way to see the world of color and composition.

“The main thing is the composition, and getting the color right. I’m focused on getting the color to harmonize. A lot of artists use an iPad for more accuracy, but there’s no substitute for going outside and being there.” 

These days, with Nicholas as part of her team, Marla is able to put more of her own art on the front burner.

“Cindy will take over more of the framing so I’ll have time to paint,” she said. 

Totally committed to her shop though, she continues to attend conferences to keep up with the technical aspects of framing and conservation. 

Jeremy Simien, who collects Louisiana portraits, has had Marla frame several pieces and repair antique frames. “Frames carry the art to the next decades,” he said. “I think Marla is bringing the craft back. She uses archival glass so the sun won’t fade the art. No one cares about art like artists. Marla cares about art. Her shop is like an artists’ colony.” 

Resident artist in the colony is Marla herself. “Now I feel like this is my time to paint,” she said. “I’m really happy doing what I do.” h

See more at theframingboutique.com.