Lara Cantu-Hertzler, a Germantown resident for most of her life, is one of the area’s most prolific artists whose stunning work is currently on display through the end of October at Borrelli’s Chestnut Hill Gallery.

“Lara is a dynamic Philadelphia artist,” gallery owner Joe Borrelli told the Local last week. “I’m always struck by how her painting technique creates something you wouldn’t necessarily expect on the canvas. Her paint layers and signature color palette create something quite magical in the end. And her interpretation of her subject matter, whether it’s a house in Germantown or a study of ballerinas, is always moving.”

Cantu-Hertzler, who won a fellowship artist residency at the Vermont Studio Center in 2013, has had her work exhibited in Woodmere’s annual group show. She also has won “Best of Show” from Highwire Gallery in Fishtown.

Her paintings have been in the Chestnut Hill Fall for the Arts Festival, where she took home “Best of Show” and first place in the oils category, the Manayunk Arts Festival and Allens Lane Art Center. She has exhibited at the High Point Cafe in West Mt. Airy and the former Rosenfeld Gallery in Old City at their annual small works show. She had a solo show at Le Bus Restaurant in East Falls and was in a group show at Springside Chestnut Hill Academy.

“My favorite award,” she told the Local in an earlier interview, “was winning the full fellowship to Vermont Studio Center because I was housed, fed and given a month to do nothing but paint. However, in 2018, the Rittenhouse [Square] Fine Arts Festival used my image for their banner image, which was a great honor. I still work on wood panels, but recently I’ve been working in encaustic (melted beeswax and resin with added pigment) and mixed media. That gives my work more depth and texture.”

Born in Boston but raised in Chestnut Hill, where she lived from age 9 to 28, Cantu-Hertzler attended Project Learn School in Mt. Airy, The High School for the Creative and Performing Arts and the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, where she earned a B.A. in fine arts.

Some of her most stunning works are of ballet dancers, so it is no surprise that she studied ballet at Wissahickon Dance Academy from ages 10 to 17. After a 20-year hiatus, she has gone back to taking classes, for the last three years with Amy Novinski in her private studio at the Bok Arts Building, and also with former BalletX dancer Jesse Sani at the School of Philadelphia Ballet.

Cantu-Hertzler also studied yoga for a month at the Vermont Studio Center and earned a 200-hour teaching certification in 2024-25 at the MAHA yoga studio in Rittenhouse Square. “I haven’t started teaching yoga or dance yet,” she said, “but at some point I would like to. For now I’m OK just being a student.”

Cantu-Hertzler has a painting studio at the Firehouse Arts building and has been teaching classes there since the pandemic started, at first online and then in person. “I like to paint on a variety of surfaces,” she said. “Wood and oil-primed linen. The work that’s currently featured in the Borrelli Chestnut Hill Gallery is on Yupo paper, a plastic paper that is sold at Artist & Craftsman Supply in Chestnut Hill. It’s absorbent and designed for watercolor, but I like to paint on it in oil. The work at Borrelli’s includes an old ship, the SS United States that I painted in 2020.”

Her favorite artists are Claude Monet, Mark Rothko and Joan Mitchell for their use of color, and Franz Kline and Francesca Woodman for their composition and sense of movement. “Like these late masters,” she said, “I use color to capture light, space and mood. My paint application varies from thin, transparent, watercolor-like washes to thick, opaque layers.

“The most challenging thing I have done is to let go of my ego. This has given me permission not to be perfect and is helping me grow as a painter, a dancer and a human bring. The best advice I ever received was from my friend, Martin Campos, who told me never stop painting. I’m lucky to have a supportive family; my mom is one of my best painting students, and my brother also is a talented artist.”

For more information, visit laracantuh.com. You can reach Len Lear at lenlear@chestnuthilllocal.com.