Today’s featured artist is Tina Sotis, an oil painter from Massachusetts.
When I first saw Tina’s paintings I was immediately impressed with the amount of emotional weight in her artwork. In fact, all of her paintings seemed to convey a sort of haunting loneliness.
But see what emotions you feel as you look through these next three paintings; they may be different from mine. You’ll also notice several recurring elements—houses especially—which play a large role in Tina’s art.
In An Unexpected Visitor, those houses are painted more in the tradition of the surrealists than the realists. Square and vast, they’re intended to represent the idea of homes, rather than actually depicting them—and the turquoise and purple hues are probably another clue that the houses are more symbolic than literal.
Adding to the overall dreamlike aspect of this painting is a strangely diffuse light source and a solitary figure standing within the closest building.
He (or she, it’s not clear which) stands in the shadows, showing no discernible features or emotions. That anonymity will actually lead more viewers to imagine themselves in his or her place, as the artist no doubt intended.
Tina’s next painting, Lullaby, evokes a slightly different mood despite the house and figure being very similar to those in An Unexpected Visitor.
It’s easy enough to see why, too. The entire image is open and peaceful, with far-off mountains showing on the horizon in softer pinks and blues.
There’s also a comfortable distance between the figure and his (or her) dwelling, lending a sense of purpose to the piece in addition to the solitude.
Which brings us to the third and last of Tina’s paintings for today—a very simple, yet gorgeous painting entitled Farewell.
But there’s no need for you to say farewell just yet if you don’t want to. Visit Tina’s website at www.tinasotis.com to browse through the rest of her fantastic paintings.
