For as long as I can remember, I have perceived my environment like a live painting. From imagining paints drooping from trees, brush strokes shaping clouds into vivid colours flowing from nature, life has always been a canvas. Therefore, the explosion of colours of the impressionists, their bold brush strokes and movement present in their style, resonates with me and has been my strongest influence. Van Gogh is the painter I admire the most. I marvel at his brush stroke technique and the bold colours in which he captures the essence of his subject. For me, painting is a lot more than accurate representation of the subject; it is an emotion, a feeling, and a story. To paint is to capture a moment in time.
Fine art was always my favorite and most rewarding subject in school. In college I studied Visual Design where painting and sculpting classes where part of my curriculum. My dream at the time was to be a set decorator and a painter. When I graduated from college, the first 3d movies where emerging and the magical world of computer animation drew my interest. I completed an intensive 2D-3D animation certificate and shortly after specialized in Architecture visualization, a career I still love and thrive in after 15 years.
Painting has always been something I needed to do in order to keep my creativity alive and healthy. At first, I painted mostly for myself, but in 1998 I was convinced to start exhibiting my artwork. Each art show gave me opportunity to connect with various artists from which I learned a wealth of information and was greatly inspired. Since then I have had a dream to return to school to receive a formal fine art training and transition to full time painting. In 2010 this dream started to became reality when I was accepted to Emily Carr University for the bachelor of Fine Arts program. As part of a summer semester, I had to opportunity to study in Florence, Italy. As one of the most beautiful cities in the world, Florence has a lot to offer in the area of art and architecture, which are my two main areas of interest.
The Firenze Collection features sceneries from Florence. A recollection of visual moments I experienced during my stay in Florence. This show will introduced my first series of oil painting departing from acrylic, the medium I used so far for all my previous paintings. Sixteen oil pieces will be show in range of sizes along with sixteen Ink drawings created over the last two years.