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

I sketch the large shapes that make up an individual’s body. I decide how I will place the individual within the four walls of the rectangle in a way that suits them or seems unexpected and exciting. I am interested in depicting their presence. As I spend time with them creating a life sized painting, I become enamored to show the individual’s complexities. Individuals are depicted in pastel with archival materials on textured canvases that reveal a dazzling glow of pigment.

Merits

2025 The 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

Long form Artist Statement:

I pay attention to how an individual holds themself. I look for the larger shapes that make up a body. I draw the central contrasts or focus points of an individual. Sometimes it’s a subtle emotion. Sometimes an exaggerated muscle against a calmer limb reveals something about an individual’s story. These drawings can be a memory of a first impression, or a closer look at a friend or family member. I believe there is beauty in depicting the age and actuality of a face and body. My grandmother's arthritic hands are beautiful, a Vietnam vet's thin yet strong form shows beauty and portraying him with outstretched arms glorifies our lesser seen bodies in our culture.

While not painting, I am an art teacher and in the service of others with words and images. This has translated into painting as a feeling of being in service to the individual I paint, to depict their complexities and presence. Words are always shared while painting. But I find that words fall away and I focus on the relationship and the image. Out of reverence for the individual I spend sometimes thirty hours with while I paint, I decide how to place them within a rectangle that is unexpected and exciting. And over the thirty or so hours we spend together, I become enamored to show their story in one image.

I create a small color study by selecting pigmented rembrandt and sennelier pastels from meticulously labeled pastel boxes. The colors are placed in another box and set apart. The pastel color study is created within a small notebook and sealed. The small scale lends itself to allowing me to see what a large painting could look like in a few hours. And the notebook allows me to carry around this dream while prepping a canvas, and waiting for a next meeting.

Soft charcoal or gouache is applied to a grey canvas. 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. Working through textured shadows allows for 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. The individuals are depicted life sized on a matte canvas that emits a glow of pigment.

Like Fayum portraits, my pastel paintings are stored in my dark studio with the shades drawn each day. Some of my most remarkable experiences at museums are in dimly lit rooms with dark walls. I imagine that Golem, a small man made of mud and dust, visits my dark studio through the studio walls. He is responsible for animating inanimate matter. My role is to record and remember my sketches, practice, and paint. With the excitement of a stage performance, I open the curtains to work and watch the light catch the colors of each individual.