[Inspiration] Painter Crush | Zaria Forman Making It Real

When an artist is on the quest to create something magnificent, it is not only the art work that speaks for themselves, but also through it, you will be touched, till that certain depth of your heart and empowers you to question the extended motives behind the art itself and what it intends to deliver. For this woman artist, Zaria Forman brings not only the landscapes of vast nature to vivid life, in 3D and photorealistic manner, but also at the same time, brings forward its global warming issues to great attention. That, is the power of art itself and the potential of it to be socially responsible, in a subconscious way. 

Her love for painting landscapes with pastel has a great deal to do with her early childhood times spent with her family traveling throughout several of the world's most remote landscapes (which were the subject of her mother's fine art photography, no wonder *_^), and of course, her formal training at Skidmore College further cemented her passion and affirmed her that this is what, exactly she is meant to be doing, in her life - painting.

Working from her Brooklyn, NY studio, artist Zaria hopes to use her drawings to invite viewers to share her attention to the urgency of climate change in a hopeful and significant way. She reveals that she never thought that she could draw landscapes with pastels. It is a tough medium to work with, but she pushes on, knowing that what she is doing is something close to her heart. She believes that art can facilitate deeper understandings that assist humanity in finding meaning and optimism in challenging times.

Why icebergs and Greenland in particular, one may wonder?

In August 2012, Zaria led Chasing The Light, an expedition sailing up the NW Coast of Greenland, retracing the 1869 journey of American painter William Bradford and documenting the rapidly changing arctic landscape. Continuing to address climate change in her work, she spent September 2013 in the Maldives, the lowest-lying country in the world, and arguably the most vulnerable to rising sea levels.

According to this talented artist, being a full-time artist wasn't something that she had envisioned doing, it was only an activity until when she was offered an exhibition after her college, one show led to the other, guess that was how she got into the "flow" of things. Like most people say, the rest is history.

She usually takes a great deal of pictures when on location and does some simple sketches, to help preserve her memory of the landscapes. Once back at her studio, she will draw out the main sketches as outlines, and would start building the painting layers by layers, step by step, often by hand, sculpting and moulding with the materials she works with, drawing from her memories of the place, at times, mix and match to re-create new elements to form the large scale compositions. It is most definitely, a labour of love, looking at these amazingly huge and realistic paintings, it feels as though one is exactly there, on location, taking in all that glory that nature has to offer, so majestic yet vulnerable at the same time!

We absolutely adore her creative work and always admire those creative artists who work really well with their pair of hands. It is such a blessing that one can create such wonders with just merely working with something that is naturally given to us, and doing it so excellently. Truly magical indeed. We are indeed very much inspired and would definitely look at the element of water and sky in a different light, from now onwards.

Learn more about Zaria Forman via her official website here and her exclusive interview here. You can also connect with her via her Facebook here. All pictures via those sites mentioned above and here.

Have a wonderful weekend ahead and stay luminously beautiful always, inside out and take time off from your busy life to enjoy what nature has to offer, and help preserve it along the way *_^

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