Eva Channels Her Urgency Into Artwork

California-based artist Eva Visnjic possesses an amazing ability to connect with audience through her unique paintings that obviously carry an emotional and personal message. In a way, paintings are signs that convey information regarding the human experience, regardless what that human experience is comprised of. From her relationship with nature, with urban places, structures of social and political nature, emotional exchanges such as love, hate, and loneliness, Visnjic uses painting as a mean of channeling her urgency to connect.

Her depiction and representation of symbols comes together in her work which is rendered in meticulous details, with smooth colorful brushstrokes of paint applied gently to the surface. Precise and delicate, her brushwork gives the effect of a blurry identity, making it look as an object or image that we feel we know. Every art related matter interests, inspires and spurs her on. Painting allows her to take control of things, even if that may be colors, paintbrushes or simply space. In her early beginnings, Eva Visnjic used to paint mainly small pictures of flowers, but with time she started incorporating larger, delicate abstractions that depicted intricate, spectral projections alongside other ambivalent visions.

A set of questions regarding her collection of paintings figurative seems to be one of her biggest motivations for her distinct body of work. Figuration and abstraction, situations that it extends out into the world or that she has no control over, are some of the things that she enjoys most about her work. Most of the planning happens on site, often in public places where her subjects simply live. Painting models is a bit different, as they usually come into her studio, which means she has more control over the situation. Eva Visnjic has been painting her entire life, since the day she could hold a pencil, and throughout her life her passion for art just kept growing, until one day her biggest dream came true and her hobby turned into a profession. Following her dream, she still has a long way to go, but she is optimistic that with enough effort she will eventually get there.

Visnjic: Art for Social Change

With a vision of advancing social change through the use arts, Californian artist Eva Visnjic has set a mission to connect artists and communities through education in the practice of community collaborative arts. The program is envisioned as is a hub for community collaborative arts research and education in the community. The main purpose of the program is to help communities understand the power of community collaborative arts, and show how arts-based projects can be an effective way to achieve goals of community and social development.

Eva shared on Twitter how to use painting loosely and freely in the fresh light of creativity. But before learning to do this, she first took the time to choose the methods and processes that were working for her. As an artist and a teacher, Eva encourages her students to trust in their instincts, and quells their fears about the process of finding one’s own creative voice through painting. Her own artistic interests started early. As a little girl growing up in Bakersfield, California, Eva Visnjic enjoyed support for her artistic endeavors. Both of her parents encouraged her passion for painting and drawing, and with time, just like most artists in training she learned to design, compose, make sketches, and finally put paint to paper with a finished goal in mind. Loose, broad brushstrokes and fresh color is what makes her paintings magical and appealing, instantly captivating one’s attention. By combining her transparent washes of vibrant, flowing color and rich, complex glazes, Eva gets to portray a realistic depiction that retains a fresh, spontaneous quality.

As a contemporary artist she works primarily in the abstract, but often she incorporates human figures into her paintings, in order to create a multi-layered and complicated composition. By doing that, her work preserves detail while maintaining a loose and expressive stroke. As seen on her video profile at Vimeo, Eva Visnjic presents an unified composition which draws attention with its simplistic beauty and luminous colors that she so effortlessly marries together. For Eva, her paintings are a platform to express her emotions, viewpoint, wit or irony. The powerful burst of emotion can be immediately seen in her paintings that seize the viewer’s attention and doesn’t let go.

Eva V. - Artists should feel comfortable to create something out of nothing

In painting the first stroke is the most important. It comes from nothing and manifests everything. The American-born artist Eva Visnjic creates beautiful paintings using materials not often paired together. She also uses recycled parts which coincide with her love for nature. Eva manipulates light and shadow to cleverly produce amazing shadow art. She places her solid materials in the direction of light and capture the shadows produced from the interaction.

Another fascinating detail about her technique is that she paints all of her works by memory, without having any model. In her work what strikes the viewer first is her sweeping brushstrokes and then all the fine details. Visnjic uses large calligraphy brushes in order to create the general shape and posture of the object. For the intricate markings she normally uses charcoal pencil and smaller calligraphy brushes with pointy tips.

She has an innovative approach and uses bold, impressionistic brushstrokes, often leaving white space to suggest distance. For Eva Visnjic, first and foremost the artist must trust his or her own ability, which means that one should feel comfortable to create something out of nothing. Prone to experimenting, Eva likes trying out different mediums and new techniques, as well as making her own unique combinations. For example each paper reacts differently to the medium so sometimes it absorbs immediately, and other times it doesn't absorb at all. A simple brush provides less control than fine one, and sometimes it is the other way around. The uncertainty, and the desire to create something new, fresh, unseen, is what inspires her. Each and every painting brings something different. In order to give life to some areas Visnjic sometimes uses salt on the paper, which creates different patterns as the paint dries.

Her latest display included paintings with a hint of her past influences. The natural light and color are evident mixed with the playful design and whimsy structure. Ms. Visnjic continues to serve it all up in a fresh light with energetic originality and contemporary aesthetics.