ABOVE: Actress, artist, humanitarian, mother and wife, Jane Seymour is an Impressionist at heart who works in oils and watercolors, and dabbles in other media. BELOW: Seymour often paints pictures of her twin sons. The watercolor shown here, "Twins Looking For Bugs," was painted from a photograph that was taken when her sons were just a year old.

JANE SEYMOUR:
MAKING AN IMPRESSION

ctress, artist, activist and mother, Jane Seymour takes the term "multitasking" to.heart. Best known for her roles in the television series "Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman," the romantic film "Somewhere In Time," and the James Bond classic "Live and Let Die," the Emmy- and Golden Globe-winning actress has proven her talents in all media — even painting.

Seymour began painting in the early 1990s as a form of self-therapy when her marriage to third husband David Flynn fell apart. "I was going through a divorce and was overwhelmed by a lot of things going on in my life at the time," she says. "I painted maniacally, morning, noon and night. It got me out of my despair and took me to an amazing place where I was happy."

ABOVE: "The Grand Allee" depicts Seymour walking from Claude Monet's house in Givemy, France. The setting provided the backdrop for a documentary directed by Seymour's husband, James Keach.

In 1992, she signed on to play "Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman" and continued painting throughout the six-season series. "I painted on the set of 'Dr. Quinn,' and people kept asking for my pieces, so I gave paintings as gifts," she says.

Active philanthropically for more than 20 years, Seymour soon discovered that she could use her art to support her favorite charities, including City Hearts, an organization that teaches creative and performing arts to inner-city and at-risk children, Childhelp USA, UNICEF, the American Red Cross, and the Make-A-Wish Foundation, among others.

Her involvement with children "thrills her," she enthuses. "Art is not about coloring in the lines or trying to make something look like a photograph. It's about self-expression. I call it the 'happy accident.' "

Soon after, a line of greeting cards was created from her watercolors to benefit the aforementioned organizations. And one of her watercolors, now featured on a special Discover Card, sold for $25,000 at a charity auction to raise money for the Make-A-Wish Foundation. "The art was selling like crazy at charity auctions. I also did some paintings that became greeting cards and 100 percent of the proceeds went to charity," she says.

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