Regina Saura at her Studio. Behind, one of her works.
The code of The Beginning. Raised with the art of photography all around, Regina learned to see the world differently, When her father, a professional photographer, gave her a camera, she gained the power to frame and choose images according to her notion of the world. When her father took Regina and her sister to museums, the artist, with her characteristic quirkiness and deep sense of nuance, came away from these houses of art impressed most with their ambiance and silence. Thus, when it was time for her to move with her husband from Barcelona and her successful graphic design business to a small village on the northern Mediterranean coast of Spain to raise their daughter she was ready to create her highly acclaimed collage paintings. The objects often found in Regina’s works form part of a personal iconography, symbols of her life experiences. With her visceral reaction to real-life objects and calculated representation of space, the artist makes the familiar seem unexpected and new. Her work is charged with emotion and executed with intellectual determination, stimulated mind and spirit with the unimagined and the impossible. Regina’s mixed-media paintings are represented in public and private collections throughout Europe, the US and Japan, including the St. Petersburg Museum in Moscow. The artist is also an accomplished muralist, receiving prestigious public commissions in her native Spain.
Art as a process, as a way to see things in life. Art is a lifestyle. Perception. Observation. Composition. Balance. Harmony. Objects. Landscapes. Emotions... and Regina’s work is steeped in this. Her way to capture feelings. Taking a picture, drawing a Sketch... so she can memorize them, and then, follow a whole process. Her work was at first inspired by urban scenes and the human figure, but then she moved to the countryside and her work evolved into using landscapes as the main focus. Her work flows as well as she does.
Regina Saura working in her Studio.
“Whenever I paint something, comes unconsciously from the situation I’m living in that moment. When I was pregnant I focused on food and tables, the works from this phase were exhibited as a collection in Japan. I’m also surrounded by design, mockups and all sorts of chairs that my husband Pete Sans creates. I felt inspired by them and started to paint objects and furniture. Everyday life at home, in rural life, have become Still Life Paintings.” Shapes. Colors. Landscapes... India, Lanzarote, and Argentina; travel has inspired paintings where black meets color in a beautiful contrast reminiscent of those black beaches in Lanzarote, and where lavender violet or red from Irati forests become a different reality. “For me these are powerful images, that can seem unreal but color and contrast impacted me in a way that I couldn’t refuse to express them in my own way” She relies on this inspiration to create the large murals which have become her trademark. “Murals are a completely different way to work, because they need to be designed for a specific space. The challenge is to integrate several pieces to form a single work. Each piece can function as a single painting and together they form a group composition”.
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“My last mural in New York was challenging, because I used a single colour spectrum and the result was completely different from other landscapes. Colour harmony is very important to me, and sometimes, the idea is to research, like I did with the colour gold in the 2013 NY exhibition. Like magic, the research I did, ended up bringing the best solution to resolve a painting. This is for me the final process. A group of elements when joined … together …, form my work.” “I would like to say a few words about collage because it is a technique which identifies my work. Collage for me is similar to the texture of a brush stroke that helps finish the work. The papers I use in the collage are also made by me with the careful selection of texture,color, etc. I use everything and never throw any pieces away. They are something precious to me!” She writes on her paintings, which she explains is a different way to achieve another type of brushstroke. It helps refine the composition and to balance the work. “I spend so much time alone with my paintings that they become my companion! The writings are conversations that I have with myself and with the painting but I only share part of the conversation. Generally they are not complete phrases. They are thoughts that come into my head, lyrics from songs, poems, emotions anything that inspires me in the moment or that the painting inspires in me. They are the personal relationship that develops between me and the painting during the process of creation.”
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“I feel free with art and when I’m painting. It is where I can enjoy … myself, without fears. And despite the constant evaluation that artists receive I’ve learned to be true to myself, respecting others opinions, but without changing the way I do things.” 3
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1. Sabor a fruta 2. Flores 3. Gaüses 4 . Café amargo
Beyond the canvas. We must appreciate Regina’s art from the perspective that the painter has to integrate art and life. She loves to play with materials, and find new ways to express herself. 1
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1. Taula 2. Sofa 3. Porta 4 . Taça 5. Catifa
Murals and collaboration with architecture.
Inspired by the area where she lives, Regina talks about this great mural presented in new york called Through the Forest. “Two years ago I moved from a village to where I live now, in the middle of the forest. When I leave my house (where I also have my studio and paint) I pass through a forest and this has provoked a lot of “sensations” which transmit in the paintings; the scent of the forest, sounds, light, movement, tones, shadows, changing of the seasons... all of this has caused me to have a great respect the forest and nature. It is as though I was able to see it for the very first time and begin to know it intimately.” Process, and inspiration in this exhibition come from visual impact in her day to day life and travelling, and when this happens, she take a picture and uses it as a reference, which helps her develop her work. Through the Forest is a project where the colors and their combination play a very important role.. The selection of other techniques, materials, framing, subject matter, composition, texture and collage etc., also play a large role in each work. The selection of additional techniques used in each piece is spontaneous. It progresses with the work and each piece is unique. “The making of Through the Forest was a very different process because it was the first time that I created various pieces that function as one composition. Of course each painting is a composition in itself but the challenge for me was in making both individual compositions and the group composition work. Not an easy task! I worked off of photos
I had taken and made a number of studies to achieve the transition that I imagined in this piece. One piece leads to the next which also refers to the journey I envisioned for the viewer when in front of this large work.” “The concept of Through the Forest is that the viewer moves “through” the forest and experiences the joy and the challenges that the forest lives, moving from the open forest to a dense forest, from a living forest to a dying forest to a forest reborn. My intention was to visually inspire the other senses. I hoped the viewer would imagine the scent of the forest, hear the sound of the leaves underfoot. My favorite seasons are spring and autumn. Maybe it is the introduction of the change of colors... that each brings that I enjoy; the renewal. I would love that people have the same experience as I have when in the forest. That when they stand in front of this collection they feel the magic ...and all of the emotions that the forest lives through. I would also hope that they see the union of my developed style of painting with a touch of fantasy.”
She has murals placed in some important architectural spaces in Barcelona. “I think it is really interesting to match two different types of expression. Art, the same as architecture is made to be lived in and I like the idea of creating murals for specific spaces.”.
Regina Saura in her Studio. Behind, one of her works.
For further information visit www.reginasaura.es or contact at regina@reginasaura.es