Vous l’aurez remarqué, le regard est central Dans les yeux d’Elsa et Louise. C’est finalement d’une manière assez naturelle que nous nous sommes prises d’intérêt pour ces artistes qui en font leur sujet principal.
Cette semaine, c’est au tour de l’artiste australienne Shanti Shea An de nous présenter son oeuvre. Une peinture faite d’observations qui impose le silence. L’artiste explore le sujet de l’intimité, de l’intériorité. Ce sont des représentations d’intérieurs vidés où le temps semble arrêté. Des scènes de vie quotidiennes, muettes, où des anonymes y sont représentés absorbés dans leurs pensées.
L’artiste les observe et nous livre ses observations personnelles. En résulte des peintures intimes, silencieuse et synthétiques. On vous invite cette semaine à découvrir ce regard, à entrer dans l’univers de l’artiste Shanti Shea An.
Cette semaine, c’est au tour de l’artiste australienne Shanti Shea An de nous présenter son oeuvre. Une peinture faite d’observations qui impose le silence. L’artiste explore le sujet de l’intimité, de l’intériorité. Ce sont des représentations d’intérieurs vidés où le temps semble arrêté. Des scènes de vie quotidiennes, muettes, où des anonymes y sont représentés absorbés dans leurs pensées.
L’artiste les observe et nous livre ses observations personnelles. En résulte des peintures intimes, silencieuse et synthétiques. On vous invite cette semaine à découvrir ce regard, à entrer dans l’univers de l’artiste Shanti Shea An.
Portrait de Shanti Shea An
Could you introduce yourself ?
My name is Shanti. I’m an artist living and working in Australia, based in Canberra and Sydney. I studied painting at university and am now undertaking a PhD in visual art, with a focus on painting.
Could you talk about your artwork ?
My work has changed quite a bit over the last few years and I find that my main focus has too. I’ve often been interested in interior spaces and also describing figures within interiors. Recently I’ve been fascinated by the way that people move through and interact with spaces like galleries and museums. Many of my recent paintings are informed by my own observations of how people behave in these spaces, how people become absorbed in the act of looking
Keep myself from you (2016), oil on canvas, 90 x 85 cm.
Franz West retrospective (2019), oil on liner, 20 x 17 cm
Could you explain us your choice of using different colors and lighting between your depiction of interior and characters?
Colour is a constant struggle for me. I often look to other artists’ colour palettes, including both historical and contemporary examples. My process nearly always involving pre-mixing a colour palette but I’ve also come to appreciate how liberating it is to persist with a similar palette once you’ve found colours that work. I find colour very intimate and it takes me a while to get to know each one—how it behaves and what it needs
Kramer vs. Kramer, 2020 (2020), huile sur toile, 17 x 20 cm
Continuations (2019), huile sur toile, 20 x 17 cm.
Give us 5 words to define your work and why?
At the moment: muted, quiet, intimate, contradictory, persistent.
What are your main inspirations ?
I spend a lot of time looking at the history of art. For some time now, I’ve been inspired by the work of the Italian painter Giorgio Morandi, particularly his use of colour and composition and so he is a constant fascination of mine. I also draw inspiration from writing, both writing about art but also literature and poetry.
Indirect gaze (Red wine)’, 2018.
Never enough (of you) (2016), huile sur toile, 50 x 40 cm
What did you push in this field ?
I think when I finished high school, I was trying to understand what my interests were and what I could imagine doing for the rest of my life (which was a scary idea, and still is scary!). I realised that I had so many different interests and struggled to choose just one thing to study. For me, art and painting became something that would enable me to venture into other areas – to study disciplines beyond just art. So I like to think that I’m not just painting to make paintings, but painting as a way of constantly learning.
No room, 2016, huile sur toile, 40 x 50 cm
From the outside (2016), huile sur toile, 90 x 85 cm
In spite of the situation, did you have any projects ?
While I don’t have any specific projects that were impacted by the current crisis, the main interruption has actually just been not being able to access my main studio that I work in! This means that I’ve been working from home, which has posed some interesting challenges to the normal way of working. Usually I’m quite a messy painter, but I have learned to be a bit more restrained, or perhaps just more disciplined! I’ll be interested to see if I can keep this up when I get back to the studio.
L'ensemble des peintures de Shanti Shea An sont à retrouver sur son site :
https://www.shantisheaan.com