Artist Of The Week - Colette Calascione

Abduction

The New York based artist, Colette Calascione, has a knack for combining classic portraiture and surrealism. Inspired by books and images of early eras, especially the Victorian era, her paintings focus on figures, usually standing, sitting or reclining, from old photographs. She then adds her own quirks and layers, and transforms the figure with a dream-like, renaissance feel.

Colette (born in 1971) received a B.F.A. from the San Francisco Art Institute, California. Her work has been shown at St. Mary’s College, Moraga, California and the San Francisco Art Institute, as well as in many galleries, most notably in the San Francisco area.

The self-taught artist - who admits she’s a perfectionist - takes many steps into creating one piece. Each begins with a drawing, an idea, then Xeroxing and enlarging, which leads to drawing everything on a white panel with a watercolor pencil. Then she works on the various layers, mostly for the flesh because she has so much in each painting. Over the drawing, she does a coat of Caput Mortem - which is an old-time technique, an earth red - and over that she puts three layers of white and a layer of green which neutralises the red. All that creates an optical grey, a grisaille. Then the color starts happening…

Artist Of The Week - Colette Calascione

                  Golfer                                                                    Two Faced Portrait

Artist Of The Week - Colette Calascione

              Bird Girl                                                                Internal Landscape

Artist Of The Week - Colette Calascione

Team Of The Hungry Ghost                                                        Boudoir

Her paintings are enigmatic, it’s quite hard to depict what expression the subject matter holds. Almost reminiscent of the Mona Lisa smile. There’s often strange erotic stories that encompass each piece, and when asked what they mean, Colette says, “sometimes they are narratives, but more often they are just visions and I don’t usually know what they are about until years later. Sometimes they foretell things in a strange way. It’s sort of metaphysical… I hope that people are able to look at my work and come away with their own interpretations.”

So what are you able to interpret from Colette’s pieces?

Big love,

Ivyology on September 18th, 2008 | File Under Artist of the Week | -