Originally from southern Italy, Stefano has lived in London for over two decades. Identity, introspection, mindfulness and freedom are recurrent themes in his work as well as a sense of nostalgia for the Mediterranean Sea and its dazzling light.

SEPTEMBER 2019 INTERVIEW

Paintings with recycled waste material, discover Stefano Pallara #ArtistOfTheWeek

by Agathe Guibé

"I adore simple pleasures. They are the last refuge of the complex." Oscar Wilde

This quote defines in some way Stefano's personality and the reason he started painting years ago.

Colourful but nostalgic, Stefano's paintings are his shelter, his "freedom and catharsis".

Stefano is originally from the South of Italy but has been living in London for decades now.

His work revolves around themes such as the definition of identity, introspection and freedom, merged into landscapes like the Mediterranean Sea and its dazzling light.

Can you tell us a bit more about yourself and how you started painting?

"My name is Stefano and I'm Italian. I grew up in a very traditional family where out-of-the-ordinary behaviour was not allowed. I received a strict upbringing, expressing my creativity wasn't really encouraged, and I was only allowed to play with typical children's games.

I wasn't interested in cliché boys' games like football, fighting and plastic guns, because of the sense of violence and competitive nature I perceived in them. Drawing was my way out, a creative space where I could play with whatever I wanted, freeing myself from the constant repression imposed by the world around me.

In real life, I was isolated but in my sketchbook, I was never alone. I started drawing animals, flowers, plants, cities and landscapes, queens, witches, wizards, angels... and it never really stopped. Painting became a part of my life, and now as an adult, I find in the creative act the same sense of freedom and catharsis that I discovered as a child."

"Drawing was my way out, freeing myself from the constant repression imposed by the world around me"

"My childhood was dark and it left a black hole inside me. Painting is a language I use to have a dialogue with the loneliness I experienced in those years and to accept it. In the past, I tried to fill that hole in various ways but with no success. Painting allows me to leave that hole as it is but to build a new world all around it.

Loneliness is a recurring theme in my paintings but being an "outsider" also generates an exhilarating sense of freedom: the lightness of not having to conform to anything, the liberating detachment of deviating from the norm."

Was there any event that influenced your artistic path?

"The technological progress of recent years with digital photography and the increasingly sophisticated software for image manipulation, have definitely had an impact on the type of technique I developed: a mixed-media of acrylic, oil, and collage of digital images.

"Finally, my daily practice of meditation, as well as my love for literature and poetry, are sources of immense inspiration. Many of the images in my paintings appear in my mind as I meditate. Meditation allows me to reflect inwards, taking a step back to observe my mind and moods from a broader perspective. It helps me to understand the dynamics of what happens to me and how it affects my emotional sphere, transforming its essence into images. The human mind produces 70,000 thoughts a day, most of these thoughts are "waste" and don't correspond to the truth, they confuse and intoxicate our perceptions. When I meditate, I purify my mind and find the calm, the discipline and the concentration I need to conceive and execute a painting."

What does Art mean to you?

"For me, Art is inventing a completely free and intimately personal language to express ideas, life experiences, and moods closely related to the existential and emotional journey of the artist. My style was influenced by my travels, by broader horizons of interaction with other cultures and other languages.

The work that I started in 2017 reflects themes and contents of my life experiences. From a technical point of view, it took me 43 years to find my style, years and years of experimentation, frustration, and failure in search of an artistic language that could represent my inner world.

Having found it is one of the most beautiful things that has happened to me and I am very proud of it. I desire to continue over the years to find in the execution of each painting the same pleasure and fun as ever."

Stefano Pallara

Artworks by Stefano Pallara

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Clouds of Unknowing by Stefano Pallara

Mixed-media painting

Kicking a Habit n.2 by Stefano Pallara

Mixed-media painting

The Thinker n.5 by Stefano Pallara

Mixed-media painting

Kicking a Habit n.3 by Stefano Pallara

Mixed-media painting

The Voyage Out by Stefano Pallara

Acrylic painting

Unravelling n.14 by Stefano Pallara

Mixed-media painting

Peace Comes from Goodbyes n.3 by Stefano Pallara

Mixed-media painting

Peace Comes from Goodbyes n.2 by Stefano Pallara

Mixed-media painting

Peace Comes from Goodbyes by Stefano Pallara

Acrylic painting

The Great Beyond n.10 by Stefano Pallara

Oil painting

Unravelling n.12 by Stefano Pallara

Mixed-media painting

Unravelling n.10 by Stefano Pallara

Mixed-media painting