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Pat Colella's subjects might be unknown to her viewers, but her pastel portraits present recognizable and appealing personalities. The fifty-eight year old Long Island-based artist explains her creative
ambitions as: "my art is a statement about creating three-dimensionality in a representational yet expressive way."
However, her work's charm and integrity lies in her ability to express more than her subjects' physical reality. She also skillfully articulates aspects of their character through her sensitivity to costume, expression, movement and flesh itself. Like all good portrait artists, Colella shows flesh's full range of color and builds her bodies into forms with admirable veracity. Yet her understanding of skin and flesh leads to no awkward undertones, rather it is one reason that her art conveys an aura of empathy for the people she selects as sitters.
Instead of selecting conventionally attractive subjects, Colella's sitters are endearingly ordinary. Many are older and evidently lack much personal vanity yet she renders them with generosity, dignity and
an obvious feeling of mutual appreciation. Her subjects all seem like genuinely nice people, which makes her warm and appealing images into truly lovely images.
To see more of her work registered on Saatchi Online click here.
Ana Finel Honigman |
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ANA FINEL HONIGMAN is a Berlin-based critic and curator. She writes on contemporary art and fashion for publications including Artforum.com, Sleek, V, TANK, Art in America, Artnet.com, Art Journal, Whitewall, The National, Dazed & Confused and British Vogue. As a Senior Correspondent for the Saatchi Gallery's online magazine, Ana contributes exhibition reviews from Berlin, New York and elsewhere, as well as an interview series. To contact her, email anahonigman@hotmail.com
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| Published on 16-02-2009 |
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