Cardiff memoir, Souvenir Painting

Artist Bio Geeta Yerra (India) a self-taught artist is based and operates out of Bhubaneswar, India. Her paintings are realistic, based on true events as well as surrealistic concepts. She has been a full-time artist since 2011 but since 2020 she’s doing large oil paintings and using linen as the surface due to its archival quality. She is inclined towards making art in a contemporary surrealistic or semi-abstract style. She addresses issues related to mental health awareness, self-love, women, identity or pressing problems of the society. With a master's degree in social work and a post graduate diploma in HRD, she had worked in the social service sector and multinational corporations and had acquired a lot of varied professional experience by 2011. Her life experiences and her keen observation are the main inspiration for her artistic pursuits. Her art is in private collection of collectors from the USA, UK, New Zealand and India. Artist Statement Being self-taught, I started out painting a wide range of objects, from still life to landscapes to objects out of fantasy and imagination. I create concept art in oil and have created realistic art in acrylics and watercolor. But from 2020 I have been doing only concept art or art that adds to history. To depict my concepts, I work with oil on large linen canvas. Due to the archival quality of linen I prefer to work on this surface and oil helps me to organize and portray my thoughts well on the large linen canvas with its slow drying quality. So, going forward I will do more of concepts that heal or make me happy. I hope the viewer will enjoy the visual appeal of my art, feel the emotion in which it was created. Also, I wish the viewers to connect with my art in a way that may initiate an inner dialogue. Using a traditional method of creating with layers of paint, I emphasize texture and color. I use colors, motifs, allegory and symbols to express my concept in a surrealistic style. In a painting I like to add many small brush strokes or colours on purpose to emphasize and add meaning to the main idea and so viewers must look for the small little details in my paintings. All my stories are representations of true events that I witnessed or have experienced. While working on a particular concept I have done multiple paintings on the same theme. I like to return to a concept again and again with new imagery.