A meeting with Naples artist Sara Kissing and her high-impact, lushly layered canvases was all it took to convince the top brass at Clive Daniel to make her artwork part of the furniture retailer’s floor inventory.
“My art is best experienced in person,” says Kissing. “Each piece has details that range from collage to 24-karat gold leaf and epoxy, and that richness only reveals itself face to face. Once the team saw them, we decided to move forward with a full collaboration.”
The result of said collaboration is the series Pop Art Icons & Idols, a group of portraits featuring performers from Hollywood’s Golden Age and music stars from more recent times. “We worked closely with showroom managers in Sarasota and Naples to imagine which cultural icons would resonate most with their clientele,” says Kissing. “I then painted 15 new works, and each store selected the icons that best matched its atmosphere and customers.” Sarasota picked rock stars like Prince and David Bowie, while Naples opted for figures such as Marilyn Monroe, James Dean, and Audrey Hepburn.
Appreciation for Kissing’s artworks comes from the fact that they are as detailed as they are labor intensive. “Each piece is entirely hand-painted; there is no screen printing,” says the artist, a German native who moved to Southwest Florida from San Francisco a few years back. “I begin by sketching and then work in stages, building up texture with paste, layering acrylics, markers and pencil, adding photo collage elements, gilding with genuine 24-karat gold leaf and metallic pigments, and finally sealing with a glossy epoxy finish. It takes about two weeks or so to complete one large painting.”
While Kissing’s association with Clive Daniel is a first, the experience is not entirely new. In early 2025, Natuzzi Italia hired her to create a number of paintings based on Italian legends. Prior to that, she worked with interior designers throughout Florida by providing large-scale artworks for commercial and residential projects on a regular basis. These series-by-commission gigs might just prove to be her new niche, however.
“I really love painting this way,” says Kissing, who’s represented in Naples by Gallery One. “It gives me the freedom to explore different facets of an idea while keeping a unifying thread.”
Story Credits:
Text by Florian Jouin
Photos courtesy of Sara Kissing
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