Clea Felien
My paintings deconstruct traditional portraiture. The clumsy painting style I have developed lends itself to the psychologically charged images I portray. My subject matter delves into the dark recesses of the human psyche. What seems normal, happy and perfect but isn’t. I strive to paint a portrait that is as complicated as the human psyche, one that shows as many conflicting emotions.
My paintings are done with my non-dominant left hand. I was trained as a realistic portrait painter, and after breaking my right arm ten years ago I began drawing and painting with my left hand. Now my work is done exclusively with my left hand. I find the lack of control affords me greater creative freedom. The jagged line quality, and squashed on smeared paint are more emotionally expressive as a result of not being able to easily manipulate my materials. The physical awkwardness of using my non-dominant hand augments the emotional awkwardness I intend to portray. I paint with my left hand because I am right handed.
My recent body of work is portraits of what I consider real people. I first draw these portraits with ink on paper and then paint over them in oil. The line becomes the skeleton, the paint the flesh. This series portrays the frail, vulnerable, psyche I believe we all have. In the real world, each human being operates daily expressing a myriad of complex emotions. In my work I want to show all of these emotions at once, sorrow, madness, anger, frustration, confusion, happiness, etc…
www.venus-designs.com/cleafelien/
Click here for Clea Felien 's Bio and Past Exhibits
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