Artworks by 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, because starting from an initial idea, it allows me to change the image from time to time, so it is a reflective technique that slowly brings me to the final result. It allows me to arrive, if I want, to the perfection of the figures, deciding the number of passes that I want to give. The second technique helps me to understand and immediately see the subject that will be depicted, as the pastel gives almost immediate results, without having to go beyond the areas already painted. My genre is a surrealist figurative that tries to tell hidden stories and emotions. The story takes place both in dreamlike, evocative and surreal landscapes, and in simple contexts, depicting individuals with their shadows. When I paint subjects in landscapes I carry out an introspective search of memory: the young subject is the protagonist. This occupies most of a scenario created with an old house sometimes ruined (according to a time now gone), a wild vegetation, enriched by symbolic objects and animals that had a particular meaning in that story. I try to project the viewer into an unconscious dimension, into his memory, creating a surreal environment. Painting the characters with their shadows allows me to go beyond appearance, beyond the first glance. We see the protagonist in a certain pose, always thoughtful, with a shadow behind him that seems to be his physical shadow, but that instead projects something else, his feelings, his personal essence, that which is not perceived at first sight. immediately, but which is understood by going deeper, knowing the person, his experiences and his desires, his fears, his expectations. The creation of the works always starts from photos of young subjects, I choose a context and symbols, depending on the story I want to tell and then I paint 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 reviewing the main subject up to 5 times, which must tell a story and therefore must be as credible as possible.