Hi Subscriber,
Today's selection is an interview with artist, Jessica Oliveras.
Jessica, a fine artist based near Barcelona, Spain, is inspired by
deeply personal experiences that she articulates beautifully though
figurative work infused with color and pattern.
Connecting art with emotion has long been in practice but we thought
you'd enjoy reading about her process and inspiration.
Enjoy,
BoldBrush Studio Team
_____
"Goodness" ~ Saudade series, oil on linen
Her dad is an artist, her mom an art director, so she was always
surrounded by art and culture as a child. She was always drawing and
painting as a kid - and never stopped. But she didn't commit to a
career as an artist initially; when she moved to London as a young
adult, she recalls the contrast between the art culture in Spain and
that in London. "Spain still has a very classic view of painting -
think of the influence of Velazquez - while London was more
experimental and multicultural. It was in London, while I was
experiencing all of these new elements and influences, that I decided
to become a full-time painter."
Jessica just won an award in the September 2021 BoldBrush Instagram
contest, for one of the paintings in the latest series she's been
working on. Titled Saudade, each painting in this series focuses on the
expression of a single eye. "Saudade" is a Portuguese word for "a deep
emotional state of nostalgia and melancholy longing for something or
someone you love," and Jessica shares the story behind this series of
paintings and why these eyes express saudade for her.
While she was in London, where she lived for eight years, she
increasingly began to have a sense of nostalgia for her homeland. Her
need to reconnect with her roots grew stronger and stronger until it
couldn't be ignored, and she decided to move back to her home town.
That process of relocation and readjustment, of coming back after being
away and responding to that sense of saudade that had filled her during
her time abroad, inspired her to paint these eyes. Each painting is a
portrait of the eye of someone close to her, and the title of each
painting is an adjective that best describes that person. "It was a
very natural outcome of the process of reconnecting with my family and
home," Jessica said. "Since my family is artistic as well, the
connection between my art and family life is seamless. We'll have long
conversations about art together as part of our daily life, and so it
was natural to find the eyes, which are the part of a face most
expressive of the soul, of my family members to be the thing which best
expresses that deep connection to this time and place. The painting
that won the award, titled "Goodness", is the eye of my mother, and she
is such a wonderful person - I know of no one who better embodies the
meaning of that word."
She adds that this fulfillment of her saudade doesn't feel like a break
in her experience or work done while in London, though: "It's a
seamless continuation of my previous life and my past experiences are a
part of my present. One of the main themes behind all of my paintings
is the connection between universal human existence and my own personal
existence - the idea that through art, a single individual's
experiences can become universally shared. And I love that my own
history contributes to my ability to tell that story."
"Spring" ~ Pachamama series, oil on canvas
Her personal style, she adds, really developed during her time in
London. "My dad taught me the fundamentals of drawing and painting when
I was a kid, and my early works look very similar to his early works,
quite a traditional style. That was one reason I moved to London,
because I knew I needed to experiment and be exposed to new ideas.
That's not to say that I didn't want to work in the same manner as my
dad - his work is great! But I knew that in order to really find myself
I needed to be exposed to outside influences as well." In London, which
has a lively multicultural art scene known for its innovation, she
found the diverse influences that helped her break out of her own
borders. "I needed that experimental atmosphere. I never actually went
to an art academy; I already had the basics from my dad, and I was more
concerned with finding things out for myself. I think because I never
went through a formal program, it made it easier for me to move away
from rules and just try things. I became fascinated by working with
bright colors and merging shapes, letting foreground shapes disappear
into the background for example. I also found a love of pattern." Her
paintings focus mostly on individual women. "I studied midwifery, and
worked as a midwife, while I was in London - that was how I supported
myself for the first years. The thing I love about being an artist is
that all of the threads of your life come together and all of your past
experiences come to bear on your work. I've been working with women, at
one of the most beautiful but painful and vulnerable times of their
lives, since I was twenty-one. The vulnerability of giving birth and
the connection I've formed with these women through working with them
during this time definitely translates to my paintings, which are about
universal human emotions expressed through the female figure."
Her transition out of midwifery to a full-time art career was
challenging but rewarding. "I loved my time working as a midwife but
being an artist is my calling now and I'm so thankful to be able to
focus on art at this time, as well as for the past experiences that
work themselves into my paintings." Her advice for other creatives who
are looking to transition from part-time to full-time artist: "Know how
much you're willing to sacrifice, because it does take sacrifice to get
there. What you need the most as an artist is time, so be aware of how
you're spending it and make whatever sacrifices you need to in order to
give your work the time it needs. And I think making sure your work is
faithful to you as a person is essential too - whatever your day job
might have been, it's a part of your life and you should honor its
presence by letting the experiences it brought to you be present in
your artwork. It's easy to label yourself by your 'job', but that is a
mistake. All of life is a process of figuring out who you are, and
often, multiple jobs or careers are a part of that. None of that
experience is wasted, even if a job does not end up being your life
work. I would sometimes be caught in the feeling of duality of being
both a 'painter' and a 'midwife' and not knowing how to label myself. I
thought changing the label to 'full-time painter' would be a massive
step, but to my surprise, it was a completely smooth transition. I'm
still the same person with all of those individual interests and
experiences. It's easy to want to put a simple label on ourselves, but
life is too complex for that."
"Intuition" ~ Saudade series, oil on linen
Returning to the concept of saudade that inspired her series, "Eyes are
important in all of my paintings; they're the purest expression of
one's existence. When you look someone in the eye, you cannot pretend,
you cannot lie, even to a total stranger. They represent the inner
person. So in this series, I wanted to portray a big idea with the
smallest possible part of the face. And the eyes of the people dear to
me, the reality I met again after my years abroad, capture that essence
of their being. But even though this series is intensely personal for
me, I'd like to think that someone who has never met my family and
doesn't know what these paintings mean to me can still look at this
work and sense the emotion behind it. They bring their own connotations
and experiences to the way they see my painting, and then it can
connect with a total stranger - this is a beautiful thing!"
Jessica adds that the recent move home, and the process of reconnecting
with her deepest inspirations, has resulted in a burst of productivity
in her creative life. "I'm in the process of doing a new series
currently, and am preparing for an exhibition in London this coming
January. I have almost the whole of next year's work planned already -
I'm so excited about what I'm doing now and what's coming next."
Many thanks to Jessica for doing this interview with us! You can see
more of her work on her website jessicaoliveras.com
or see her in-process work on Instagram
. If you're located in
or near London, you can keep an eye out for the upcoming show:
The Brick Lane Gallery - London, UK
Collective exhibition "Portraits"
Dates: 4th-17th January 2022
"Jamaica" ~ B-RUSH series, oil on linen
"Summer" ~ Pachamama series, oil on canvas
_____
Eager to Learn More?
The BoldBrush Studio Blog is a great way to learn more about art and
art history. If you'd like to read other interviews and posts showing
great artists and their stories, please click the button below.
Read More Posts Like This One
_____
BoldBrush Videos are available for unlimited streaming. This is a
DIGITAL CONTENT ONLY product. You will not receive a DVD.
Browse Our Video Library
Image 4255412
{{FASO_DOMAIN_VISIBLE}}
{{AM_COMPANY_NAME}}
{{AM_COMPANY_ADDRESS}}
{{AM_CSZ}}
{{AM_COUNTRY}}
Unsubscribe
Sent with ArtfulMail