Originally from the Philippines, Kansas City based artist Raffaela Malazarte has been experimenting with oil painting since 2000. Her style is greatly influenced by fauvism and impressionism.Raffaela’s choice of colors and brush strokes are very bold, thick and vibrant. Malazarte’s artwork will be on display at the Oak Park branch until December 21, 2022.
Tell us about the works on exhibit. What’s the medium? What has inspired their creation?
All of my works that are exhibited in the space are oil paintings. Each piece has different inspiration. There is one landscape called “Last Summer” where I took a photograph of an area in Overland Park Arboretum and made a painting from that photo. Another one, which I haven’t really made a title yet. But for the mean time, I will call it “After the Blizzard,” inspired by a friend who makes animated videos with ambient sounds in Youtube. He made this background from scratch and I copied it on canvas. I also thought I should add spring-time mood in the exhibit, I got this inspiration from Pierre-Auguste Renoir’s “Landscape at Grasse.” It’s a very colorful and vibrant painting with thick strokes. I absolutely love lavenders! I have not been to a lavender field, but it did not stop me from painting one so I got Lavender Field Landscape in my work too. Hope you’ll love my work and I might add more if there’s still space.
What art do you most identify with?
It’s definitely a mixture of 20% Impressionism, 40% Expressionism and 40% Fauvism. Impressionism is a style that include small, visible brush strokes that offer the bare impression of form, unblended color and an emphasis on the accurate depiction of natural light. While fauvism is when artists use pure brilliant color aggressively applied straight from the paint tubes to create a sense of explosion to the canvas. Expressionism refers to artwork in which the image of reality is distorted in order to make it expressive of the artist’s inner feelings or ideas. So basically, my art is more diverse and does not focus on one characteristic or style.
What was the most important thing you learned from being a self-taught artist? What’s something inherent in your art that couldn’t be taught?
The most important thing for me as a self-taught artist is “patience and curiosity”. I don’t think any artist will prosper without patience. When Pablo Picasso painted Gertrude Stein’s portrait, it took him over a year to finish or get satisfied with it. Patience is definitely something that every artist must have and cannot be taught.
What areas of your work or personal development are you hoping to explore further?
I would like to explore more on how I can market and spread the word about my art and get more ideas on what type of artwork inspires, gets attention, and of course something that also interests me.
What is your most important artist tool? Is there something you can’t live without in your studio?
Well, there are a few things that I cannot live without in the studio and that would be the obvious which are my easel, brushes, palette, painting knives and most importantly my mahlstick!
Please list 5-10 books, movies and/or music that currently inspire you.
Movies:
Vincent and Theo (Mini Series)
Wuthering Heights (Mini Series)
Books:
In Montmartre by Sue Roe
Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas by Gertrude Stein (It has illustrations in it)
