Concrete and Color
Eugenia Almeida relies on both to transform spaces
When you ask an artist about her favorite medium to work in, you expect an answer like oils or acrylics. Not “concrete.” Yet that’s Eugenia Almeida’s top choice.
“I love the medium,” she says. “You can mold it and shape it. It’s going to be almost indestructible. I like the idea of longevity in what you do. It’s going to be there.”
A stroll through the showcase house she and her staff at A New Hue have created in Lonsdale gives a person an idea of just how creative concrete can be.
In the living area, a section of wall covered in hand-carved swirls of concrete gives dimension and artistic interest to the space. Down the hall, a shiny wall that looks like marble is actually high-polish Venetian plaster. She used pieces of wallpaper and stencils in combination with plaster to create a lively, colorful wall covering in the bathroom. The tiles in the kitchen are actually concrete.
Around town, she’s applied concrete and plaster to door frames, fireplace surrounds, range hoods, even the outside of a hot tub. She’s shaped them into leaves and petals and colored them in the hues of the mountains. Concrete and plaster are used to create faux finishes of endless variety — marble, wood, stone. The effects are stunningly realistic.
“Bringing color and texture into a house — this is my passion,”
Gauze and fabric. Pieces of stone and shiny mica. She has used them to cover walls and ceilings, planters and lamps, tables and light fixtures.
For Almeida, texture is the bottom line. “Bringing color and texture into a house — this is my passion,” she says.
A native of Argentina, Almeida and her children came to the U.S. while her husband studied in Ames, Iowa. “We left Argentina in the summer and landed in three feet of snow,” she recalls. Then he accepted a position at the University of Tennessee veterinary school. They’ve been in Knoxville for 30 years.
Though she had followed her mother’s example into law school in Argentina, it was her father’s art that ultimately influenced her life’s work. “He was never without a pencil and paper, or clay. He was always doing something that was artistic.”
After moving to Knoxville, Almeida says she worked many different kinds of jobs, but all along she loved art. She especially loved working with plaster and cement. When her husband was invited to attend conferences in Europe, she sometimes tagged along and took classes from master artisans there. She says she did that twice a year for about five or six years.
By 2014, she was skilled enough to open her own business, A New Hue, which specializes in the things Almeida loves: faux finishes, plasters and concrete overlays. Today she employs 14 artists to work with individuals and commercial clients to transform their spaces with color and texture. Their work can be seen around town at Ancient Lore Village, where they have transformed each of the accommodations into spaces that hobbits and elves might occupy; at Altar’d State in West Town Mall; at Lilou and Cleo on Gay Street; and the Knoxville Chamber of Commerce.
She is passionate about exploring new ideas and techniques. “I’m always thinking. I love to push the envelope.” About two years ago, she decided to learn how to work with clay, and now she’s molding it into busts of people. “I think it’s going to be one of my favorite mediums,” she says. “I like pieces that show personality.”
And she likes to create large-scale work. A pair of angel’s wings occupy most of one wall of her company’s workshop. On another, an almost-life-size elephant head emerges from the wall. “Big is gorgeous,” she says.
Almeida takes her talent into the community as well. She serves as a board member with Junior Achievement and as a mentor through the Knoxville Entrepreneur Center, where she shares her experience as an entrepreneur and business owner with others in the community. A New Hue has supported a number of local nonprofits and other organizations, including InterFaith Health Center, The Restoration House, and Lonsdale Elementary School, among others. She offers occasional classes at her studio as well.
“Knoxville has been so good to us,” Almeida says. “I am grateful for everything we do and happy to give back.”
Learn more about Almeida and A New Hue at anewhue.net
