By Bonnie Gangelhoff

When Ariana Richards was 6, she was asked to model clothing in a newspaper advertisement for a shopping mall in Thousand Oaks, CA. The tow-haired, blue-eyed little girl took the money she earned from the assignment and bought an Australian Shepherd puppy she named Fauna. She knew at an early age she was hooked on show business. Before long, the talented youngster landed an acting role on the long running television series The Golden Girls. Her television and movie career was off and running from there. As time passed more and more roles came her way, including the role for which she is probably best known -Lex Murphy in Steven Spielberg's Jurassic Park.

Today, at the tender age of 23, Richards has a website (www.ariana.org) built by devoted fans who discuss her film history, which includes more than 30 films, television programs, and commercials she has appeared in. The site contains information about the Best Young Actress awards Richards has won, along with trivia such as her 1988 appearance in a commercial for cinnamon Toast Crunch cereal. But "history" is the operative word here, because Richards' film career is just that -ancient history.

These days painting is her passion, and she is thoroughly enmeshed in her new career. "I love the lifestyle of being an artist," she says from her new home in Northern California, not too far from Healdsburg, where she was born. She recently moved here from Southern California, and nowadays Richards spends the majority of her time alone, far from the fanfare and flocks of actors, cinematographers, and sound technicians.

In painting circles Richards is becoming best known for her landscapes, waterscapes, and evocative figurative works. Last year Southwest Art tapped her for inclusion in the annual "21 Under 31" feature. At the time she was already a member of the prestigious Oil Painters of America and had been selected for the California Art Club's Mentor Program. Richards was one of 12 artists under the age of 25 chosen, and she considers the honor a major steppingstone in her career.

Today, she lives quietly in Northern California amid oak trees and rolling hills dotted with sheep. For high drama she turns to the Pacific coastline with its gigantic rock formations and thunderous waves. Among her favorite paintings is "Wetland Reflections" because one of her artistic concerns is capturing the interaction between water and sky.

Although it's too soon to tell how the move north will affect her work -she has only lived in the wine country for a few months -she is confident some changes will occur. On a personal level, she says, the recent move has given her room to breathe, "I'm calmer, more focused, and I have the time to think and contemplate ideas about my work," she explains. "The atmosphere up here in the country is more conducive to me creatively and personally."

Her studio, which is upstairs in her home, is a long narrow room with high ceilings and two skylights. A side window offers views of oak trees and hills. It's spacious enough so that she can step 20 feet away from her paintings, a vantage point Richards relishes. Whether she paints en plein air, on location or from a model in the studio, she always starts from life, she says. And if the models in some of her paintings, like "Enchantment" resemble herself, it's because one of her favorite models is her younger sister, Bethany.

"I have it made here in my family." Richards says. "She used to be an actress and she makes a great model." In "Enchantment" Richards captures Bethany in a private moment reading. "I was especially taken when I saw the play of light and golden glow haloing Bethany," she says. "I painted this just before I moved away from Southern California in our sunroom."

If you step inside Richards' studio these days you are likely to hear hints of her heritage -Italian opera by Pavarotti or Celtic ballads by Enya. Richards is of Italian-Irish descent and art has been a tradition in her family for generations. Her maternal grandmother, Alma Parmelee, is a professional oil painter in California, known for her florals and landscapes. Parmelee has traced the family's heritage back to the early Italian Renaissance painter Carlo Crevelli, a contemporary of Botticelli.

It's no surprise that Richards draws inspiration from the Renaissance painters as well as the old masters, French Impressionists, and American Impressionists such as Californian Guy Rose. "There is something so universal and powerful in the historic artists," Richards says. "I would like to be like Guy Rose and use my own view and brush to discover my vision. And as Joseph Campbell says in his books, I would like to use my brush to also discover that 'fortunate rhythm' in art that creates an incredible effect -a radiance."

For Richards, about the only thing acting and painting have in common these days is that they both make people think she is a little eccentric at times, perhaps like a character in an adventure movie. For example, when working on "Wetland Reflections" she had to brave the elements, standing in marshy reeds on sultry summer day. "I remember the painting well because I heard this noise and I thought it was someone playing the bassoon," she says. "Then I thought it was a goose hiding in the reeds. Finally I realized it was a giant fat frog, 7 inches long. I painted to the sound of the frog."

Another night recently she was painting at a Malibu lagoon. She was attempting to depict a marshland area and reflections of the moonlight on the water. To illuminate her canvas, she wore a minor's hat with a light attached atop her head. A man passed by and stopped to ask her, "Are you going spelunking?"

"No," Richards replied. "I am painting the moon."