Elizabeth Latella | Figurative Painting Traditional | The Delavan Center, Syracuse, The Art Students League of New York, Pleasantville, White Plains

Painting models, friends, and family, I pay attention to how someone holds themself. I look for the larger shapes that make up a body. Drawings remind me of my initial notes of that person’s important shapes. Then I pick the leading visual roles to amplify who the person is to me. A small pastel color study is done and sealed in a book. Colors are selected and set apart.

Soft charcoal is applied to a grey canvas. As time passes while painting, central contrasts or focus points of the body emerge. Sometimes it’s a subtle emotion, sometimes an exaggerated muscle against a calmer limb. Working large, I draw the important moments with energy and momentum. I draw, redraw, experiment, describe important forms, and paint.

Pastel on pumiced canvas provides the bounce and forgiveness that I enjoy. This allows working firmly or reworking areas. The slapping of pastel sticks fills the room with sound and dust. I search for texture wherever possible. Away from the light of digital screens my work swings toward everything layered and woven. Textured shadows give me greater opportunities to explore the colors of the human skin. Against those shadows, the light offers chances for the unique forms of individuals to be slowly and dazzlingly revealed.

Merits

2025 Everson Museum of Art, On Our Own Time Exhibit

2019 Phillis Harriman Mason Gallery Grant Winners Showcase

2018 Member of The Art Students League of New York

2017 Fantasy Fountain Fund Travel Grant

2017 Paris American Academy Certificate of Fine Art

2015 The Art Students League of New York Merit Award for Realism

2013 Bachelor of Fine Art in Illustration, College of Visual and Performing Arts, Syracuse University

2007-2018 Student, The Art Students League of New York