LeeAnn Kress
Description
LeeAnn Kress has a wonderful talent for finding the sweet side of spooky. Fascinated by Halloween and fanciful characters from an early age, she creates folk art that combines the imagery collectors love about the season with bright colors, expressive personalities and just enough darkness to keep things interesting. Pumpkins grin, poison apples become colorful trick-or-treat buckets, and witches, skulls and other curious characters seem more mischievous than menacing. It's an imaginative balance that gives LeeAnn's work a personality all its own.
LeeAnn's creative process begins with a simple lump of clay. Working with paper and epoxy clays supported by inner armatures, she carefully sculpts her original characters before sanding their surfaces smooth and bringing them to life with layers of paint, stain and finishing details. Fabric, paper accents, netting, ruched crepe paper, tinsel and other embellishments can add texture and movement to the finished artwork. Bethany Lowe Designs reproduces LeeAnn's original creations in collectible form, preserving the sculptural shapes, expressive faces and wonderfully unusual color combinations that make her Halloween folk art so recognizable.
These pieces are especially fun to arrange as a colorful Halloween gathering. Group poison apple and pumpkin buckets together on a mantel or shelf, add a larger witch or character as the focal point, and surround them with bottle brush trees, candy corn colors and other vintage-inspired Halloween decorations. Smaller LeeAnn Kress ornaments can continue the theme onto a Halloween tree or feather tree. Her combination of orange, purple, green, black and unexpected candy colors also makes the collection easy to coordinate with playful Halloween folk art without requiring every piece to match.
Why Buy LeeAnn Kress from Traditions?
LeeAnn Kress is exactly the kind of artist we enjoy introducing to collectors: someone whose personality is immediately visible in the work. Her Halloween characters feel distinctly different from traditional scary décor, and her relationship with Bethany Lowe Designs makes it possible to collect reproductions inspired by her carefully sculpted originals.
Serving collectors since 1994, Traditions is a family-owned holiday store with a special appreciation for Halloween folk art and artist-designed seasonal décor. Our team personally inspects items as they arrive and photographs our products in-house so collectors can see the hand-painted details, colors, textures and embellishments of each design. Whether you're adding another LeeAnn Kress character to an established collection or discovering her wonderfully spooky-sweet world for the first time, our knowledgeable customer service team is always happy to help.
Frequently Asked Questions
How does LeeAnn Kress create her original folk art?
LeeAnn begins her original characters in clay, using materials that can include paper and epoxy clay supported by inner armatures. The sculptures are carefully shaped and sanded before being painted, stained and sealed. She also incorporates dimensional materials such as fabric, paper, netting, crepe paper and tinsel into some designs, giving her original folk art a layered, handcrafted appearance.
Who produces LeeAnn Kress collectibles?
Collectors will most often encounter LeeAnn Kress designs through Bethany Lowe Designs, which reproduces her original artwork in collectible form. These pieces translate LeeAnn's sculpted characters into hand-painted seasonal decorations while retaining the expressive faces, colorful palette and playful Halloween personality associated with her originals.
What coordinates well with LeeAnn Kress Halloween collectibles?
LeeAnn's spooky-sweet style pairs especially well with Bethany Lowe Halloween décor, vintage-inspired pumpkins, poison apple decorations, bottle brush trees and other colorful Halloween folk art. Her pieces can also work alongside artists such as Johanna Parker when you want a display filled with expressive characters and nostalgic Halloween imagery. Try repeating orange, purple, green and black throughout the display while mixing different shapes, heights and textures to give the collection a gathered-over-time appearance.