California Period - Jacaranda Painting

“Deborah Lanino's works embrace her ancestry with a fusion of impressionism and expressionism that touch the spirit.”  - Lisa Carey, Intentfully Fit “Lanino's contemporary paintings are marked by vibrant hues of blue, purple and yellow: they add a different dimension of light reminiscent of Impressionist art to her canvases." Anna M. Hennessey,  Catholic Herald UK Biography Deborah Lanino, born and raised in New York, began her career illustrating book jackets, magazine covers and several picture books, her first being the Christmas classic, The Littlest Angel, written by Charles Tazewell. With a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Pratt Institute and a Master’s Degree from Argosy University, she also studied art abroad at SACI in Florence, Italy. Deborah has taught college art for over 10 years at the Art Institute and exhibited her work in numerous galleries and museums nationwide, including bG Gallery, The Blackfrairs Gallery, Sturt Haaga Gallery, Range Projects Gallery, The Makery, The Beverly Hills Art Show, and The Huntington Art Museum. Her work has been featured in The New York Times, St. Petersburg Times, Tampa Bay Times, The Catholic Herald, UK House & Garden, and Wine Spectator, as well as publications such as Farrar Straus & Giroux, Random House, Barnes & Noble Classics and Simon & Schuster. Currently, Deborah resides in Los Angeles, where she maintains her art studio. Her solo show,. Reimagining Faith Hope and Love at the Blackfriars gallery in Berkeley features 25 paintings and is on view through 12/12/2024. Artist Statement I remember drawing as soon as I could hold a crayon and was fortunate that my family encouraged my love of the arts.  My first sentence was “I See.”  When I was a college junior at Pratt, studying abroad in Florence, Italy, I traveled north on a train, and saw the churches, museums and an exhibition in Vercelli,  commemorating 400 years since the death of Renaissance painter Bernardino Lanino (1512-1583).  I learned about the prolific Lanino Workshop near Turin and of ancestral connections by working with a genealogist. In my work, I use Renaissance techniques such as chiaroscuro (lights and darks), sfumato (blurring edges) pentimento (painting over), thin transparent layers of glazes and thick impasto. The natural beauty of the west coast influences my palette. Themes from scripture can be found in my work, the goal of which is to uplift and bring positivity to the viewer.