Winning Art Speaks Volumes

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Art

Saturday, 01 October 2011 02:30

By D Francis

Antigua St John's - Veteran artist Naydene Gonella is celebrating success, after her piece captioned “Awareness" snatched the winning title during the recent exhibition at the Art at the Ridge.

Caribarena.com caught up with Gonella to find out more about the artist behind this masterpiece.

“It’s always an honour to win," she said. "I was surprised though that more local artists did not participate.

I was looking to see many more, but it could be because some people may not have new pieces to display.

However, it was great. It was a great feeling to win.”

She studied art in Canada and Italy, and since graduating in 1994 has been stunning the world with her large pieces that channel the many emotions of the human form.

“I just love to do these large pieces expressing faces and other figures of work in different emotional states," Gonella said. "The winning piece is 4'x5'. Although I’ve experimented with landscape and abstract, I always go back to my first love figurative the subject matter of the human form and portraits  back to the face and the body; it’s very intriguing. In this piece, 'Awareness,' the expression of the face is glaring at you. It’s more of a self reflection, bringing an awareness of your inner self.”

She uses encaustic (painting with wax and oil paint) in varying layers to bring a unique aspect to her work.

“This type of art is quite an unusual form to work in, and quite tricky because it can become very sticky and dry," the artist explained. "In this piece, I used a lot a layers - about 10 - and a lot of time also, working on a few canvasses at once. It was quite a lot of rotation going on all at once.”

A visit to Aruba was where her love for the beautiful colours of the Caribbean began. 

She heaped praise on the many local artists, and noted that a trend is taking shape where more female artists are taking to canvas. “There is a general notion that great art work is usually the handy creation of males," Gonella said. "Even with the Awareness piece, a lot of people did not believe it was a woman’s.”

Unlike some other artists, she said interest has been high. Awareness, at a cost of US$7,000, is already generating significant interest.

Her calendar into early 2012 looks pretty active, as she has been working with a number of galleries and businesses, including Al Porto, Jumby Bay, Harmony Hall, Rhythm and Blue, and Sugar Ridge.

“Artists should always strive to be better," she said. "I’ve had discussions with a college art teacher for students to come and see what I do. I like that kind of thing, for students to see working artists in process and what they do.


Also, artists should enter everything they possibly can, every possible competition that’s what I do. Show your work wherever you can ask restaurants, hotels and keep pushing yourself. If you just keep putting out comfortable work, it’s probably going to show. Work a little harder. I love to see people take a chance and try something new; you never know what will happen.”

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