Originally trained as an architect, Gioele Amaro has retained a fascination for materials and surfaces from his formal education. Using an innovative mix of ink and varnish on canvases, his paintings mimic various metals‘ shiny and reflective surfaces, including copper, aluminum, stainless steel, and iron foil.
How did your background in architecture influence your artistic style?
As an architect, I have a keen sense of spatial relationships and composition. This translates directly into my paintings. Architects are trained to pay meticulous attention to detail, whether it is in the precision of measurements or the choice of materials. This attention to detail likely carries over into your paintings, where you may excel in capturing intricate textures, patterns, and nuances of light and shadow. We often work with color palettes when designing buildings and spaces. My understanding of color theory and how different hues interact can greatly enrich the work, allowing me to create vibrant and visually compelling works of art.
How do you use digital tools to create your compositions?
I utilize specialized software designed for digital painting, such as Adobe Photoshop, Corel Painter, or Procreate. These programs provide a wide range of brushes, tools, and features tailored specifically for creating digital artwork and mimicking the traditional painting experience. I will likely use a graphics tablet. These devices allow me to directly draw or paint on a surface with a stylus, providing precise control and sensitivity to pressure and tilt. Digital painting software offers a vast array of customizable brushes, ranging from textured brushes that mimic traditional media like oil or watercolor to specialized brushes for creating effects like blending, smudging, or adding texture. I create my own custom brushes.
What techniques do you employ to achieve the illusion of reflective surfaces?
Understanding Perspective, Observation and Reference, Layering and Transparency, and Experimentation and Practice
You mentioned applying layers of varnish or paint to the printed canvas. How does this process contribute to the overall effect of your artwork?
Adding layers of varnish or paint can create a physical texture on the surface of the canvas, adding depth and dimension to the artwork. This texture can mimic the appearance of reflective surfaces, such as glass or polished metal, by capturing and reflecting light in a way that simulates the surface texture of the material being depicted and can help to enhance the realism of the printed canvas by mimicking the appearance of brushstrokes or impasto textures found in traditional painting techniques.
Could you see your work applied to a fabric or part of a design?
Abstract art is unfortunately very often mistaken as a lack of elements and figurations and therefore suitable to act as a background. I think he’s the main character instead, not an element of decoration.
How does a typical day look for you?
What I like about artistic expression and in particular paintings is that there is no typical day or similar weeks; creation is a place that you have never been to yet, and you are preparing luggage in your mind to buy the „idea.“ Intuition is the part to be continuously cultivated.
What are you currently working on? Where can people see your exhibitions this year?
With Almine Rech Editions, we made my first book and a series of prints on the occasion of my solo show in London.
Gioele Amaro – www.instagram.com/gioeleamaro/
