Michel Stewart Modern Art, at 854 Wye Road in Bath, is an art studio, retail store and — according to owner, Michel Stewart — a cool hangout for all. Photo courtesy of Michel Stewart Modern Art

BATH — Art has been a lifelong passion for Michel Stewart, owner of Michel Stewart Modern Art, even if her earliest forays were not exactly “traditional.”
“I started very young until my dad said absolutely no graffiti on the side of the house,” Stewart said with a laugh. “I just saw a blank canvas [in places like] the back of my garage. But to the day he died, he wouldn’t let anyone paint over it.”
The Cincinnati native said her father was also inspirational in her eventual opening of her own art studio at 854 Wye Road, but art education was the first path upon which Stewart embarked.
“I wanted to get into art education; my parents and aunts and uncles were all educators,” she said, adding that throughout her life “art has always followed me.”
While working in the medical industry, Stewart said she had the opportunity to live in nine states and explore many different cultures while continuing to create art in her home. Delving into all manner of art, from pottery and jewelry to acrylics, oils and mixed media, Stewart said she has always wanted to explore the most unique media.
The media she has become most known for as an artist, however, came from a less than exotic source.
“About nine years ago I [was] on somebody’s boat of all places and said, ‘what is this?’” Stewart said of her first experience seeing acrylic resin used in an artistic way.
Stewart calls the innovative method of painting “fluidity on canvas,” using her own recipe of textured paste to create sculptures on canvas. Her website, michelstewartmodernart.com, notes that she also proficiently uses resin, mica powders, acrylics, alcohol inks, gemstones, healing crystal, crushed glass and a slew of metallic refined glitters in her work.
“I did about a year’s worth of research and what I loved about it was the depth,” she said. “Making something underneath this coating [ensures] it will never be destroyed; it stays immaculate.”
Her desire to add depth to the medium led to Stewart applying the method to decorate a variety of items.
“I wound up saying, ‘I like it, but I’d like it better if I added this.’ I like the immediacy. You get one shot at this and as soon as it’s mixed, it’s game on,” she said. “It’s abstract, but the resin work I do is seven layers.”
In September, Stewart realized a lifelong dream of opening her own studio, which her late father continued to unfailingly encourage her to do.
“[Right] before he died, he was still telling me ‘young lady, you have to open that studio.’ So when I found this building, I [did]. So what if you fail? If you do, you’ll learn something,” she said.
Michel Stewart Modern Art offers resin art classes at 9 a.m. and 6:30 p.m. on Mondays and Wednesdays and collage/mixed media classes at 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Students are able to take home their artwork at the end of the two-hour, $85 collage class, while the $135 resin class takes two sessions, Stewart said. Call 440-724-4968 for class scheduling.
The front of the studio, meanwhile, is a retail shop open from noon until 5 p.m. Monday through Thursday and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday and Saturday, featuring unique gifts including candles, clothing, jewelry, holiday items and coffee. The store also offers an array of gemstones imported from a Himalayan Sherpa Stewart met on a trip to Denver.
“He was selling gemstones on the street and he said he does that [for] two months a year and then goes back to his home where he runs a hotel,” Stewart said. The meeting led to a friendship with the Sherpa and his wife, who now regularly supplies Michel Stewart Modern Art with its singular inventory of gemstones.
Beyond being a retail outlet, Stewart said she also wants the studio to become a hangout for customers and others.
“On Fridays and Saturdays I love to open the store early and sit on our very cozy front porch,” she said. “That is my goal; to make it a destination, not just a business.”

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