Autumn de Forest’s signature includes a heart hovering over the second “U’’ of her first name.

    Considering that she turned 15 a few weeks ago, that’s not much of a surprise.

    The surprise is where that distinctively girlish signature appears: on paintings that, collectively, have sold for millions of dollars.

    But maybe it’s not so surprising. After all, de Forest has been a working artist for most of her young life.

    The first public showing of her work took place in 2009 at Boulder City’s annual Art in the Park, where she won an award a year after she first picked up a brush, at age 5.

    Since then, de Forest’s paintings — and herself — have traveled the globe.

    Last year, she visited Rome to accept the International Giuseppe Sciacca Award for Painting and Art — and presented a painting, titled “Resurrection,” to Pope Francis.

    This year, the Butler Institute of American Art in Youngstown, Ohio, extended de Forest’s solo exhibit from two months to almost four because of its popularity.

    Now, she’s heading to Miami Art Week for Red Dot, a juried show featuring the works of more than 500 contemporary artists.

    Last weekend, de Forest stayed home — for her first Las Vegas exhibition at the Gallery of Music & Art in the Forum Shops at Caesars, where her work will be a permanent feature at the gallery, director Barry Jacobson said.

    Alongside some of de Forest’s paintings is a video monitor featuring footage of her working on canvases taller than she is.

    You can still see that little girl in the enthusiastic, articulate — more accurately, downright chatty — teen of today.

    “I’m definitely an extrovert,” she tells the Las Vegas Review-Journal. “To the point of embarrassment.”

    Kathy Fletcher, Turnaround Arts’ national director, says de Forest “inspires other kids to follow their dreams, and express themselves through the arts.”

    “She is a great peer role model — embodying the ideals of the confidence, joy and success that students can achieve through the arts,” Fletcher said.

    As de Forest puts it, “What I tell kids is, whatever you love — painting, writing, sports — just don’t focus on how good you are, focus on how much you love it.”

    That’s what de Forest has done since the day her dad, Doug, was staining some wood and de Forest picked up a paintbrush. Her dad said it looked like a Rothko.

    De Forest had no idea who Mark Rothko was — then.

    Now, the renowned abstract expressionist is one of her favorite artists.

    From Jackson Pollock’s drip-paint abstracts to Andy Warhol’s pop art portraits, de Forest’s influences emerge from her canvases.

    When she painted a bouffant-coiffed Barbie doll in the style of Warhol’s Marilyn Monroe, de Forest thought, “’If he can do this with Marilyn Monroe, I can do this with Barbie,’” her mother, Katherine, says.

    “I really enjoy working in different styles,” de Forest says. “To change is wonderful. If there was no change, everything would be the same.”

    (SD-Agencies)