Laura Muolo

Oil painting on canvas is my favorite technique, sometimes replaced by pastel on cardboard, but the line is always the same, the style is realistic. I choose these two techniques because the first lends itself to the composition of the painting, a...

Oil painting on canvas is my favorite technique, sometimes replaced by pastel on cardboard, but the line is always the same, the style is realistic. I choose these two techniques because the first lends itself to the composition of the painting, as starting from an initial idea, it allows me to change the image from time to time, it is therefore a reflective technique that slowly leads me to the final result. It allows me to arrive at the perfection of the figures, if I want, by deciding the number of passes I want to give. The second technique helps me to immediately understand and see the subject that will be depicted, as the pastel gives almost immediate results, without having to subsequently go over the already painted areas. My genre is a surrealistic figurative that tries to tell hidden stories and emotions. The story takes place either in dreamlike, evocative and surreal landscape contexts or in simple contexts, depicting individuals with their shadows. When I paint subjects in landscapes I carry out an introspective search for memories: the young subject is the protagonist. This occupies the main part of a scenography created with an old house, sometimes in ruins (signifying a time that has now passed), uncultivated vegetation, enriched with symbolic objects and animals that had a particular meaning in that story. I try to project the viewer into a subconscious dimension, into his memory, creating a surreal environment. Instead, painting characters with their shadows allows me to go beyond appearance, beyond the first glance. We see the protagonist in a certain pose, always thoughtful in his gaze, with a shadow behind him that seems like his physical shadow, but which instead projects something else, his feelings, his personal essence, which at first sight cannot be immediately perceived. , but which can be understood by going deeper, getting to know the person, their experiences and their desires, fears, expectations. The creation of the works always takes place starting from photos of young subjects, I choose a context and symbols, depending on the story I want to tell and then painted in a single scene. The painting sessions are different: I try to give at least three passes to all the elements of the painting, sometimes, if I don't find satisfaction, I find myself going over the protagonist subject up to 5 times, which must tell and therefore needs to be as credible as possible.