Painting
Anelia Pavlova moved to Australia in 1993 and subsequently began to work in oil painting. During the period of 2000 to 2008 she made a number of exhibitions with Trevor Victor Harvey Gallery in Sydney, Australia (e.g. “Anelia Pavlova - Garden of Virtues”, Australian Art Review ), each of which has a descriptive title.
As with her prints, her paintings take inspiration from the Old European Masters, though no longer as re-interpretations but as a general, ideal influence ("the older culture comes built into my personality" ). To this influence is added inspiration from classical music spanning all major historical periods, from the Renaissance and Baroque to Modern and Contemporary. Some of the composers that inspired Pavlova include 20th century modern giants such as Dmitry Shostakovich, Paul Hindemith, Sergey Prokofiev and Olivier Messiaen as well as lesser known composers such as Bohuslav Martinu, Max Reger, Einojuhani Rautavaara, Mieczyslaw Weinberg and the microtonal composer Ivan Wyschnegradsky. Several of her paintings made to the music of Weinberg in particular have served as illustrations to an article appearing in the 4th issue of the Chinese music magazine “Philharmonic” as well as to online music reviews.
Her paintings have been described as "images with shimmering and luxuriant surfaces evoking the rich and sumptuous art of the late medieval period. Her canvases are full of magical, luminous beings, and she imbues each work with both medieval and contemporary metaphysical meaning.".
In style, the paintings fuse elements of modern art with older styles passing all the way back to the Orthodox icon. Their themes are broadly concerned with abstract metaphysical and theological messages as well as figurative, almost mythological, Nature-inspired scenes. Musical instruments are present in a number of paintings, according with Pavlova's interest in classical music. "The wealth of subjects, motives, symbols and forms from different cultures and times is a challenge that A. Pavlova cannot resist ... history as a mere fact does not captivate her ... but rather as a materialization of the spiritual in the characters which come alive through the subjective interpretation and individual context." Beauty and love are integral principles of her work, as well as a fascination with the Natural world.
Read more about this topic: Anelia Pavlova (Annael)
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“If the man who paints only the tree, or flower, or other surface he sees before him were an artist, the king of artists would be the photographer. It is for the artist to do something beyond this: in portrait painting to put on canvas something more than the face the model wears for that one day; to paint the man, in short, as well as his features.”
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