Painter
March-May 2022
Cynthia Celone is a painter (and digital illustrator) based in Connecticut who received a BFA from the Lyme Academy College of Fine Arts. She grew up in the arts including dance (ballet and tap), and decided to pursue painting and drawing as a profession. Arriving in mid-March along with several other participants, Cynthia dove right into her work in the studio and in her digital work creating a large set of NFT illustrations. All on site during the next weeks and months utilized free time to explore the area, go on walks and wanders, and talk 'shop' as often as possible.
Based on her medium and work methods, Cynthia was assigned to Studio 2 which allowed for multiple pieces to be worked on over time with flat surface to have paint, palettes, and other supplies while being able to close the door during non-work times.
Cynthia brought her own easel and over several months created numerous paintings that had depth of layers and vibrancy of color. In the interview in the next post, we talk about her use of color and flat form as a yin-yang push-pull between her fine art painting and her digital illustration style.
As you can see by her online portfolio, the work is bold, vibrant, and has a playful ethereal sensibility which enhances her subject matter of nature and in the case of the residency term, at least, the human form with nature. Visit the blog post with the art talk session to learn more about Cynthia's work as she shared many examples and also how her work progressed into a "Spirits of the Land" theme to encourage people to get out into nature and express her own interpretation of the human form in the natural world.
Through this series of work in progress snapshots you can see how the artist spends time building layers from bottom/back to the foreground with details. In addition, the colors and values shift after each additional layer of color or details. These were not taken in specific lighting so please visit the professional final image of "Pyramus & Thisbe" here. The work Cynthia was creating during the residency term was centered on myths and mythologies primarily of Greek Gods and Goddesses continuing the "Spirits of the Land" project.
Cynthia participated in the farm scholarship aspect of the residency and that particular spring several black snakes had gotten stuck in the chicken coop netting. Cynthia was not phased by this situation at all! The farm scholarship opportunity will be different for everyone and often times something random like this will pop up.
As many fine artists encounter, Cynthia's work takes many hours for one piece to be fully realized. A residency allows for that focused time away from the typical routine to allow the work to evolve and even sit to dry. This time also allowed for balancing numerous different size projects for her from computer illustration, to the large panel paintings shown here, to smaller canvases and journals that were carried out in the natural environment.
Do you have a professional and fine art practice that you are balancing? Could you use some focus time to put the fine art work first with complete attention?
If so, what would you create? Often times what you think is going to take a month can be accomplished with 1 or 2 weeks. Apply today.
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