"Do Not Look Behind" Painting

The main subject that I am interested in is exploring utopian situations, combining elements that are not usually depicted together. I’m not focused on following a strict natural narrative line in my painting, and I feel that this aspect helps me create an interactive image to the viewer. It is like a scenography of imagination. I feel like my purpose is to guide the viewer inside my world and let his/her imagination do the rest. Reality is different for each of us, and the overlapping of landscapes, animals, human figures and elements results in a visual collage that should guide the viewer to find his own subjective interpretation. I construct my paintings like an interactive puzzle in which some parts are deliberately missing and in need of the viewer’s imagination, memory or reason to fill them up. The stories can be true only if the viewer lets them be so.

I start my paintings with a digital sketch that I change numerous times during the making of it. The reason for doing so is mainly because of the distinct qualities that digital colors have compared to physical colors. Oil colors have a particular way of blending, that is way different from digital coloring, and my goal is to overcome these differences and create a palpable, visually appealing image. The moment I am sure about the subject, composition and chromatic structure of the painting I start layering on the canvas. This process takes a lot of time and attention, because I use masking tape to cover the previously painted layer, and I use a precision knife to shape out the next layer, hoping every time not to cut the canvas . When the process of shaping/cutting the tape is finished I start painting inside it, then I remove the remaining masking tape. After it has dried, I start the process again. My big paintings usually have 15-20 layers or more. All this process is a perception game for me, where the image seems digital from a distance, but if you get closer to it, it looks more traditional in matter of technique.

Another aspect that is very important for me is the chromatic structure of the painting, because colors generate emotions. I use saturated colors because the contrast between them is very intense and it complements the artificial aspect of the painting. The human eye can't focus on multiple elements at the same time, so the viewer has to go back and forth in order to discover all the elements of the painting, to understand how they were made, and to really connect with the story.