Where did the inspiration come from for this piece?
The inspiration for this piece and for the whole series comes from the WORLD.
Considering the sadness and injustice that racism brings in the world, now, in the 21st century, is incredible. I have been thinking for a while about creating a series of peaceful and relaxed women portraits from all over the world.
What is the creative process when creating your vibrant figurative art?
My series “Love The World!” carries the message of living happily together in peace and harmony, respect and understanding, regardless of skin colour, culture and tradition. There are 4 original portrait paintings on canvas of smiling happy women from different cultures: “From China With Love”, “From Scotland With Love”, “From India With Love” and “From Africa With Love”. Each of them was created on the same principle, a symbol of their ethnic origin as facial features, and with a peaceful smile on their faces. I used for each of them the relevant colour scheme working with acrylics on canvas.
I looked for supportive photographic material for individual facial features as guidance. Once I started the painting, I am creating it in my own style.
How long would this work have taken you?
Working at “From India With Love” I started by covering the canvas surface with yellow ochre colour as the base for my painting. The following day, I made a simple charcoal drawing and painted using warm acrylic colours such as red and yellow ochre, black and white as accents. I worked as much as I could, about 6 hours, stopping a few times allowing the layers of acrylics to dry. The day after, as usual, I checked to see what needed to be done. It took about a couple of hours or so until finished. On the fourth day, I took several pictures of the canvas painting in good lighting and from several directions.
To me, looking at this portrait painting, the woman’s eyes and smile, the warmth of her calm and peaceful face, make it one of the most relevant portraits in the series.
