January Artist Spotlight 

 

Meet Pilar Figueira 

 
 
After moving to the United States in 2012 (with my husband and four kids), I switched my 18 year long career as an art director in advertising agencies to dedicate myself to my true love, painting.
 
I am a figurative painter that works mostly with oil paint. There is a feel and a freedom that accompanies painting with oil that is unique. Oils spread across a surface like butter! Painting helps me slow down time and contemplate about the things both around and inside us.
I realize that I keep working on family memory, in particular intergenerational transmission. I’m interested in exploring the process of reconstructing identity that takes place as generations emerge and disappear and the way stories are reshaped. I create oil paintings of familiar scenes usually inspired by photographs. The women in my family are the core of the work in progress. My series inform one another. A theme will connect and turn into other themes. I am now taking a step into the future generations.
 
 
Not only are mostly women my subject matter, but also the personal objects that surround them. Objects women live with, a part of everyday life. There is an equality to things in the home that I find generous and inclusive.
 
I am inspired by Velasquez, Sorolla, and  Sargent. I love to look at their work. There is always people and their belongings with a readability that lets you put together a narrative, another way to enter the painting. I am eager to explore that as well as who are the women in my life?
 
 
In between the detailed portraits, I sometimes take a break and simply paint seascapes or landscapes that are more forgiving and loose. As a dog lover, I accept commissions of pets on occasion. It warms my heart to connect with the care owners have for their pets.
 
I feel very lucky to be able to do something I love so much! I try to maintain a consistent weekly routine at my studio at the WinSmith Mill in Norwood. I usually split my time between family, studio practice, teaching and long walks with my dog.
 
You can find some of my work on my very outdated website: pilarfigueira.com
and also on Instagram: @pilarfigueira.studio
January Artist Spotlight – Meet Pilar Figueira