Anna Laifalight - Digital artist since 2009. Based in Kyiv, Ukraine. RtistiQ: What is your current situation Anna? Anna: From the very beginning of the war on February 24, my family decided to stay in Kyiv. But, on the 21st day of the war, I moved with my daughter to a quieter area in western Ukraine to my parents since there were explosions in our district and a large nine-story residential building was damaged not far from the house where we live in Kyiv. My husband and many other families with children still remain in their homes in Kyiv, and constantly testify about the explosions. RtistiQ: Explain more about your art. Anna: I mainly create digital art in Adobe Illustrator. That’s why it is easy for me to take everything necessary for it with me to another place: my laptop, my wacom tablet and an external hard drive. I have been working as a digital artist since 2009. My first collaboration as an artist was with stock agencies such as Shutterstock, Creative market, Adobe stock. Lately I saw that my artworks were used around the Globe in different projects, including many commercial ones. Some of them you can be seen here: https://www.laifalight.com/custom-design . I started to get freelance orders for art from different countries from time to time. In 2020 I launched my own site https://laifalight.com where I decided to represent only exclusive artworks. Although I have never arranged personal exhibitions, I found my art printed on canvases, book covers, murals, paper glasses, and textiles worldwide. "The series of beautiful streets with fashion people '' has become my "visit card" and has been created by me in my own way since 2010. RtistiQ: What do you think of NFTs? Anna: The use of the technology (NFT / Blockchain) provides a great opportunity for fairness to the authors, as this will help to avoid theft of digital works. Thank you for supporting artists from Ukraine in such a difficult time of the war. Our country and people are in great need of support.

RtistiQ

08 Apr 2022

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Claire Denarie depicts quiet moments: serene portraits; a tranquil woodland path; a woman lounging on a chair. From Pink Elephants to Charlie Chaplin’s and Coco Chanels. However, the colors are more intense than in reality, while the compositions are so tightly framed that they become dynamic, and the portrait subjects never reveal all to the viewer. Soffietti’s figures have secrets and hint at an interior world within the picture frame. It is her wonderfully palpable painting style and bold color choice that makes the 2D picture world seem more real than our very own. Get up close and personal with Claire Danerie. Tell us a little bit about your background and why you chose to be an artist? I didn’t choose to be an artist, I always painted as a need. Rationally, I studied law to give myself a chance in the world. Too many starving artists around to even entertain the thought of becoming one... yet, insidiously, painting crawled back into my life uncontrollably. I paint because I was put on earth to create, I think, and my four children are the living testimony of my craving for creativity. I waffle with my hands all day long, hiding and secretly hoping someone will get my message in a bottle. Your artworks always give the viewers a feeling of stories unfolding right in front of their eyes. How important is sharing an experience or memory in your creative process? Of course, paintings are part of a story. They have a beginning and an end and they initiate and finish beyond the canvas. They are the reflection of a thought, a deed, the memory of an event which took place in a far, far away land, buried deep inside. Again, I create hoping someone will understand the meaning of the vision but ultimately, it makes little difference as the process is unconditional; I shall paint whether viewers like it or not because it is beyond me. Of course, I crave recognition and I need acknowledgement (nobody likes talking to themselves) but I don't really need validation. I paint in the hope I will give someone joy but I also understand that my work doesn't have to speak to everybody and it's okay. The communion is instant and everlasting. The world has just become a better place. My culture also naturally greatly impacts the way I paint. I'm inevitably a product of my upbringing. I am fundamentally an impressionist at heart. What lingers and stays like a good wine long after the sip, is what I'm after. The message is delivered to the senses, the heart and soul are vibrating in communion. Tell us about the textures in your paintings. Le Chant De La Cigale, 2020, Acrylic on canvas Growing Love, 2021, Acrylic on canvas No matter the subject, I build a landscape, a "skin" with an average of 9 coats. Zoom in on any of my paintings and you'll understand. All my works have veins or scars running between the canvas and their subjects . What you call texture is for me a living organism which is paramount to the finished entity. Texture gives life. This is where I spend a great deal of time: the life support of the painting. For a skin to be strong and healthy, I need the natural fiber (100% Cotton Duck or linen stretched preferably on a large canvas). Then, the elasticity is given by the oil or the Acrylics. The alchemy is provided with the addition of ingredients such as oil pastels, dry chalks, ink or any medium that seems appropriate at the time. I have no shame, nor pride and I never feel the urge to justify the purity of my sources. Who are your biggest influencers? The French impressionists are a significant influence due to my childhood. Colours are everything to me (after texture). Colours give me goosebumps, they make my heart sing and trigger all my senses. A sad day becomes joyful just at the thought of colours. My pulse goes through the roof at the simple glance of a Gaugin. Lautrec is strength. Vlaminck, contrasts, Matisse, simplicity. Derain, joy. Picasso, the absence of boundaries, Van Gogh all the above reunited, plus vulnerability. I am also very much a fauvist at heart because of their use of colours. This fabulous movement survived from 1904 to 1908 before it got engulfed by new fashionable trends. The fauvists linked directly colours to impressions and they remain formidable in my book. How has your practice changed over time? Form used to matter, I wanted people to laugh out of an excess of despair and my subjects were grotesque. I was trying to depict human nature and that's all that mattered. With time, I became more demanding (with myself), less tolerant too. The mission became: progress, be better, search for honesty, don't settle, you can do better. My subjects changed, they became less amusing but more profound. The metamorphosis slowly took place and the real journey began. I was a painter for the long run. How do you set yourself apart from other artists within your space? Simple. I don’t compare. Everyone has been placed on this earth to create and do what they need to do. I rave and recognise how incredible artists around me are. I am also very much aware that it is the alchemy of all these qualities together that make an artist and we all have our forte. Personally, I only hope that no one paints like me, for better or for worse. Sartre once said, "I am the king of the perception of my world."

RtistiQ

27 Oct 2021

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Dean O’Callaghan is an Australian artist and educator. After decades of juggling between the two careers, he is now a full-time artist. His very well defined minimalist geometric abstract style has brought him a well-deserved recognition. His art has been part of numerous exhibits in Australia and are now part of private collections. Get to know Dean and find out what are his current projects and plans. 1. Where do you live? I live and work from my studio in Moora, a rural Western Australian town around 187km north of the city of Perth. 2. Tell us a bit about you and your artistic career? I Studied Fine Arts and I took an Education Degree course at Curtin University of Technology and graduated with a Bachelor of Education with distinction in 1990. In 1983, I became a member of the Western Australian Contemporary Art Society and from 1987 to 1988, was elected president of the Society. During this time, I participated in many mixed exhibitions at various galleries in Perth and Fremantle. I have held three pivotal solo exhibitions in 1995, 99 and 2019. I lectured part time in visual arts in Technical and Further Education Colleges in Western Australia. Art by Georgia O’Keeffe,Alexander Rodchenko and Patrick Wilson 3. What are the biggest sources of your inspiration? I’m inspired by modern and contemporary architecture found in New York, Singapore, Melbourne, and Perth. I love Georgia O’Keeffe’s cityscapes paintings, the New York-based artist Gary Petersen and I follow Californian artist Patrick Wilson. I admire the work of Russian artists and photographers such as El Lissitzky, Alexander Rodchenko and Arkady Sjaichet. Another constant source of inspiration are the rural landscapes of Western Australia. 4. Is there a single work, a project that is pivotal in your career? Solo exhibition in 2019 was a pivotal moment in the development of my minimalist style. 5. Could you please describe your creative process? I like to work through a process of exploring ideas using digital drawing tools. From there I transfer my design to canvas using a grid method. I mask up the canvas and apply an underpainting for each hue using a brush and follow up with final applications of color using either spray or brush techniques. By using this underpainting and spray technique, I feel that I have the option to allow subtle color variations to come through. It also provides a strong base for any final spray application. Once I have my areas of color completed, I apply line work which provides another dimension to my work. 6. What is behind the pictorial language of geometric abstraction? With my work based on architectural forms, I was looking to simplify, and to minimize the forms down to their basic shapes. Building facades, windows etc. were all treated in flat areas of colors and I became particularly interested in the Deconstructive architecture style developed in the 1980’s. With the work I produced based on rural landscapes, the geometric shapes and color were directly influenced by the shapes of fields, the color of various crops over a growing season, and road networks crisscrossing the landscape. From the beginning of 2021, I decided to take out diagonal lines and shapes and use only vertical and horizontal lines and shapes. I felt a sense of calm contemplation coming through my paintings and I became interested in using tonal variations and lines to create depth within my paintings. Enter Stage Left, 2021, Acrylic on canvas Summer Nights, 2021, Acrylic on canvas 7. In addition to being an artist you are an art educator, what advice would you give to a young artist? Having lectured in visual arts for many years, my advice to young artists is to be true to yourself. Although it is important to take influences from other artists, contemporary as well as historically, always aim to explore ways you can bring this into your own experiences and cultural heritage. Contemporary art is not about a style. It is more about what the concept is and how you use techniques and media to communicate your concept. 8. What are you working on right now? I continue to work on my paintings based on abstract minimalist forms. While I have been fortunate to have work shown on platforms such as RtistiQ, I am looking forward to an opportunity to exhibit my work in either a Singapore or European art gallery in 2022-23. 9. How did the pandemic affect your creative process? I am very fortunate to be living and working in Western Australia which has been on the most part, free from Covid 19 lockdowns. Recently my paintings have developed a Covid 19 theme but mostly, my creativity continues as normal. However, travelling internationally or indeed within Australia has led to a couple of cancelations to prominent art fairs. Arrival, 2020, Acrylic on canvas Outward Bound, 2020, Acrylic on canvas 10. Any thoughts on social media and art? Social media has provided an excellent way to get feedback from people from around the world. It’s also a way to get noticed and develop networking opportunities with galleries and art fair directors. 11. What else should we know about you? I have undertaken collaborative work with the Moora Indigenous community with the most recent being a mural at the town speedway. Learn more about the project here. Discover more art by Dean O’Callaghan by checking his profile on RtistiQ.

RtistiQ

13 Oct 2021

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Dan Arcus in his studio Dan Arcus is a Brussels-based contemporary artist. Having studied in Cluj, Romania, he draws inspiration not only from cinema and books but as well from news and social media. In his elaborate compositions he often depicts historical subjects taking part in imaginary scenes. His work invites the viewer to question reality. 1. Where do you live right now? I live in an apartment in Brussels, Belgium, and my studio is downstairs. 2. Where do you look for inspiration? My inspiration comes from a great variety of sources: cinema and books, television but also news, social media, and online archives. My concepts are generated by processing all the information I access. Very often it comes as a subtle irony or prediction of the outcomes of the ridiculous, the absurd, the ignorance, and the arrogance of our society. DAN ARCUS, Figure Study AV 3. How do you see the role of figuration in contemporary art? Since the "liberation" of the art market facilitated by the online, many of the aesthetic or conceptual codes have been adjusted to a more inclusive selection of artists, more accessible to the general public, and less interested in the complexity of the artistic process or pretentious conceptual explorations. For any market, the role of the public is essential. Most people receive an aesthetic education from nature, quotidian images, cinema, television, and maybe a brief encounter with very famous old masters during school years. Therefore, the emotional impact of an artwork depends, in many cases, on the viewers’ ability to interpret an image through the familiar aesthetic codes that they are familiar with. “Figuration” in contemporary art takes many forms and develops on different levels of accurate representation of the surrounding reality, hence the ability to provoke an emotional response, a debate, or a review, through content that is familiar to a larger part of society. Due to this principle, a higher interest in figurative art is generated, therefore a higher demand for it. On the other hand, the same wide market continues to appreciate and choose abstract art for its decorative role of an interior and for the neutrality of the conceptual or symbolic interpretations of that image. In many cases, abstract art becomes the "safe" choice. Figurative art facilitates the communication of philosophical ideas, making them accessible to a large part of society, and can be a very powerful tool for information dissemination. The role of figuration in contemporary art is not very different from what it used to be in the past. It continues to inform, educate, stimulate emotions, and to question. It also generates technological development and the exploration of artistic processes or the science behind them. It remains essential in the basic training of any professional artist. DAN ARCUS, Ritualic gestures I, II and V 4. How would you describe the relationship between art and society? Is society reflected in art? First of all, art is for society! In any shape, art is made for people and its ultimate purpose should be considered in relation to society. (I exclude the artistic manifestations of other species since I don't think it is relevant here). Last year has brought to the public’s attention the concept of "essential occupations". When the majority declares art as unessential and easy to discard in case of an ultimate survival test for humanity, they ignore the fact that artists are part of the creation of almost everything man-made. Can anyone imagine a society without music, literature, cinema, television, fashion, design, architecture, etc?! Can anyone imagine how the screen of a smartphone would look without the design team to shape the product, the user interface, and so on? How about surviving through the pandemic without Netflix? :P Joke aside, probably no species need art to survive, but humanity does! So art and society are so strongly intertwined that separating one from another would be like separating the structure of a building from the building itself. The building would collapse and the structure, even if it still stands, would lose its purpose. DAN ARCUS, The Evaluators, detail 5. How do you choose the topics of your artistic explorations? My artistic exploration develops in two directions - the psychological impact of the image and the technical means to achieve an emotional response. The topics I choose are usually related to my perception of contemporary society and the increasingly finer line between what reality is and what we are told it is. We are experiencing in recent years unprecedented uncertainty over what is real and what is fabricated and ultimately what is good or wrong. Many of us feel the need to escape the pressure, to navigate and discern through the jungle of information. The topics I choose are either related to observing the society’s reaction to this phenomenon or create a refuge in an alternate reality with possible metaphorical interpretations that would invite contemplation or meditation. 6. How relevant is your heritage for your art? I cannot determine precisely how much my Romanian heritage has influenced my artistic production or if it plays an essential role. Of course, much of who I am today was formed during the years I grew up, through the education I received in Romania. I probably include unconsciously in the artistic process aspects of my culture but in my work, I’m not determined by any cultural, ethnic, or geographical boundaries. I like to believe that I am first a citizen of planet Earth, then of Europe, and only then of Romania and Belgium. So my cultural heritage is probably as important as this order suggests. DAN ARCUS Fish Tank 7. What is your main medium? Are you looking to explore other media in the future? I work mainly in oil and pastel but I do a lot of experimentation with inks, pencils, acrylics, etc. I am enhancing my digital skills in order to develop relevant media. I am as well flirting with 3D software so I could explore 3D printing and sculpture. 8. Any thoughts on social media and art? Social media is a reality. Whether some dispute it and others embrace it, everybody should agree that it is a powerful tool of information dissemination. That being said, I cannot think of a better contemporary channel for increasing visibility for art. 9. What else we should know about you? Even though I am not that much in touch with the fashion world anymore, from time to time I like to take on different projects that give me a reason to put myself up to date with the latest pulse of this domain, and of course, it is always very nice to see people wearing something I’ve created. Discover more art by Dan Arcus by checking his profile on RtistiQ.

RtistiQ

15 Sep 2021

5 min to read

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The global art industry is filled with talented artists who are the doorway to our future. They are disrupters who constantly continually push us to visualise the world from a different perspective. RtistiQ is an online art gallery to connect both art lovers and renowned artists across the world. In this interview series, we take you through our featured artists’ background, their passion for art, as well as their personal thoughts on the current art landscape. Enjoy. Introduction: Vivian Loh Hui Ting is like a breath of fresh air in the artworld. She is a multi-disciplinary artist who specializes in oil paintings, murals, assemblages, digital illustrations and drawings. Vivian holds a fine arts degree from Lasalle College of Arts, where she had secured 30 Art Friends II scholarship as well as the Lasalle scholarship. She has a diverse and interesting range of projects in her portfolio including Mural projects for schools and private clients, logo designing for companies, conducting workshops and instructing art at primary schools. She has also been associated with a charity auction to help raise funds for school children in Jakarta. Vivian gets her inspiration from everyday life, the little things and moments that most of us fail to notice. She aspires to cross the thin line between reality and fantasy, translating the sensations she feels into a visual language and layering her work with it. She attempts, through her work, to let the viewer experience the sensation of the image, rather than the image itself. Featured below is an interview with Vivian. Q: Tell us a little bit about you and your art. I have always been dabbling in art since childhood, I gravitate naturally towards it. I always wanted to be an artist. During secondary school, I remember, I was one of the only painting students in my school. After a brief stint in fashion designing, I came back to studying art. It was during this time I pondered over the type of artwork I wanted to create and the medium I wanted to experiment with. Q: What medium do you prefer? Do you experiment with other media as well? Previously I preferred oil painting but now I experiment with different media. My current favorite is a mix of spray painting and acrylic painting. It’s a new medium that I am experimenting with and I quite enjoy it. I am also experimenting with digital art. I can work faster digitally and can combine my photographs into the digital process to create a new illustration. Q: What themes do you enjoy pursuing? I take a lot of photographs of day to day life. I click a picture of anything that catches my attention. I love documenting small moments or things that we usually forget about as we go about our busy days. I collect these photographs and turn it into a sort of collage. When I review this collage, a theme presents itself through the pictures. I weed out the photos that don’t seem to fit in and keep the photos that seem closer to the image in my subconscious mind. When we go about our daily lives, we are naturally attracted to things that are linked to our subconscious mind, a part of our brain we don’t normally use. Q: Where do you look for inspiration? I usually find inspiration in the photographs I click, which feature our daily lives. Other than the images I click, I admire the works of James Jean. The formal aspects of his work inspire me. The way he chooses colors, the way he sketches etc. I find that my work also evolves as I grow older. Mark Rothko is another artist who has inspired me. His paintings have no physical representation, it’s just color. It touches a deep cord with the viewers and makes them emotional. I am drawn towards sublime pieces of art. It appears very simple on the surface, but as you invest yourself into it deeper, layers begin to reveal themselves. Q: How would you describe the Singaporean art scene? At present, it’s more of digital art and interactive installation work. You download an app and the participants are invited to view the artwork digitally. There is more of public art in Singapore like artfestivals. In today’s world, people tend to enjoy artworks which are ‘instagrammable’. Q: How important is heritage for your Art? I have Malaysian roots and though I was born in Singapore, I have family based in Malaysia whom I visit often. The natural environment and culture there, which is very different from that in Singapore, have influenced me tremendously. Q: When did you discover Chinese calligraphy and how has it inspired your art? Tell us about the series of paintings available on RtistiQ? My paintings on RtistiQ are titled Bloom, Spring breeze and Evanescence. Evanescence was inspired by Chinese calligraphy. When I visited China, I chanced upon senior citizens in a park, writing poems in Chinese calligraphy on the ground. The interesting part was that they used water as the medium. They would write a couple of lines and invite strangers passing by to continue it. The water evaporates after a while and there is no documentation of it. It exists only in our memory. My painting was inspired by that moment when I watched the interaction between strangers and the water evaporating. I was fascinated by the ephemeral quality of it, just like life. I took a lot of photos and printed them out and put them on the floor. To others, the background in the paintings like bloom and spring breeze may look like abstract art, like I’ve randomly thrown paint on it. But in reality, I traced the shadows of trees on the floor and photographed it. So, all these little bits, the foreground, background etc. are layered on each other. Stronger colors are actually the light on the floor which I photographed. I tried to paint the exact shade onto the canvas and so these little bits, layers upon layers, make the painting whole, which is in a way, like our lives. Q: What do you wish to communicate through your paintings? Through my paintings, I am trying to make sense of my subconscious mind and translate it to colors on the canvas, to create a sublime and powerful image. All my paintings are based on small everyday occurrences that we mostly don’t pay attention to. I use color and form to give shape to and put the forgotten ordinary moments in the spotlight. Many times, I have noticed that, although I am present physically in a space, my mind is not present there. This duality of existence fascinates me. I may be chatting with my family, but my mind would be distracted by a particular shade of light on the floor or how the breeze is making my skin feel. Q: You have an impressive portfolio as a graphics designer. What is the difference between being an artist and being a graphic designer/illustrator? I find that drawing manually allows more flexibility and I have to be more mindful of what I do. Whereas digital illustrations allow more room for errors, since you can easily correct them. Q: How does an emerging artist like you promote her work? Tell us about social media, is Instagram the main promoting tool for your work as illustrator and artist? I usually promote my work on Instagram as it gets more views. It’s an easier format to work with and very user friendly. I would say social media plays a very important role in promoting artwork in present times. Q: How do you think online art platforms have impacted the art industry? A lot of people can access your work if its available online, but the internet is filled with all kinds of artwork. Hence, a serious buyer may not be able to locate an artist. Art platforms like RtistiQ, makes it easier for artists to connect with serious buyers. In Singapore, a lot of artists do not have studios, so they cannot exhibit their paintings. Personal websites lack in technical quality to give a clear picture of the artwork to the viewers. Platforms like RtistiQ have specialized tools which help buyers view the artwork with all its finer nuances intact. Q: Professionally how has the year 2020 been for you? What are your upcoming projects in the new year 2021? I graduated last year. So, this year I was exploring avenues to showcase my artwork and also experimenting with different medium. I plan to run some workshops in 2021 and am looking out torent a space for it. Also, in the pipeline, is a project where I am planning to collaborate with an NGO for an exhibition which will tentatively be held in February 2021. ****************************************************************************** If you are looking to buy paintings online explore our wide selection of paintings on sale here at RistiQ art marketplace. To read other interview series, check out our recent interview with two prominent artists Aude Rech and Lynne Godina where they shared tips on how you can increase sales during the holiday season. Author: Anupama Vijayakumar

RtistiQ

05 Jan 2021

5 min to read

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