21ST CENTURY VENUS
AN INTERVIEW WITH MADELINE GROSS
Madeleine Gross' work looks for the beauty in life. Through bold colours, the female form, and documentary photography, Gross creates an abstract world that still holds its grip on reality. The artist originally went to school to study painting but quickly moved to photography to focus on fashion. Painting on photography feels free and expressive for the Gross realising that the best work is created unintentionally.
"Tell me, what do you aim to communicate through your work?"
Through gesture, texture, colour and brush stroke, I communicate a different perspective, abstracting a scene to invoke emotion. I customize my photographs with paint in a way designed to abstract figures & landscapes, without completely abstracting reality. To emulate an immersive reality for viewers and induce the sensation of actually being there just by looking. I believe the added paint makes the images more relatable, sparks old memories or daydreams of being in a similar setting.
"Your work is a crossing of genres, paint and photography - how would you categorise yourself as a creative?"
That’s tough, I go back and forth from saying I'm an artist or photographer, I guess we can just say Mixed media artist?
"Mixed media would be a fitting description. I would love to hear more about your practice; when you take photographs, are you thinking of the end point whereby paint is already added, or is this two separate processes?"
Sometimes when I see a scene and snap the photo, I know exactly how I want to paint on the image. Or it’s more intuitive when I have the printed photograph in front of me, ill paint freely. Each photo is treated differently.
"When you come to create your artwork, what are your reference points?"
Nature, people watching (especially in a state of a bliss), the beauty in everyday. I’m inspired to make the mundane beautiful, I want to take my viewer out of their head for a moment to stop and look at something pleasing to the eye and bring hope.
"Your work is extremely vivid in colour, could you tell us more about the use of colour in your images?"
I like to really pull out the pigments from the images by adding a layer of paint, sometimes I’ll use an opposing colour palette, it’s all about the feel of the image and how I can make my viewer feel like they're in that setting.
"Thank you."
For more on Madeleine Gross' work, click here.