Artist SPOTLIGHT: Diplomatic life filled the canvas with inspiration
| February 01, 2023
By Kathy O’Flinn
kathy@swspotlight.com
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“Circle of Life in Blue” 20” x 16” acrylic on canvas © Lisett Llorens Artist
When Lisett Llorens snorkeled the Great Barrier Reef off Australia’s coast, she fell in love with the colors of the coral. She wanted to do a painting and capture the colors and the movement of the coral. After several months of work, she completed the painting and many more to follow.
Her work is a form of pointillism, a technique of painting in which small, distinct dots of color are applied in patterns to form an image. Georges Seurat and Paul Signac developed the technique in 1886.
Llorens was also influenced by Australian aboriginal dot painting, which is now internationally recognized. Aboriginal art has a more hidden meaning behind the stories in the paintings.
“But my pointillism is a very different style,” she said. “My pointillism technique is different because it takes me on a journey through my imagination. I focus a great deal on works that have depth and movement.”
Having lived in many countries informs her imagination. “We were in the diplomatic service,” she said. “My husband was a U.S. ambassador so we were in the diplomatic career for 36 years and I traveled with him all those years. We lived in Madrid; in Buenos Aires; in Sydney, Australia; in Argentina; El Salvador; Honduras; in Canada; and later we lived in Afghanistan. I saw a lot of different landscapes, different places, so all this beauty really inspired me.”
“Coral and Colors in the Great Barrier” 30” x 40” acrylic on canvas © Lisett Llorens Artist
Paintings include landscapes, florals and pointillism. Even though she considers herself self-taught, she started painting in high school in La Paz, Bolivia, where she was raised, later taking art lessons as an adult from talented painters in Buenos Aires, Madrid, Sydney and the United States. She studied fashion and jewelry design at the Donato Delego School of Design and Fashion in Buenos Aires and hopes to soon start working in jewelry making certain necklaces and bracelets. While she cannot do gold and silver jewelry since she doesn’t have the equipment for that, there are others who can create her designs.
Lisett Llorens, standing before her paintings and wearing some of the jewelry she designed.
One of her paintings is titled “Curious Eyes.” “I love eyes,” she said. “I painted it in black and white. I painted the eyes for all my friends, from everybody I knew. You see little tiny eyes, big eyes, happy eyes, sad eyes, all kinds of eyes.”
In her work the colors are vibrant and they express her love of nature. “The most important thing for me,” she said, “is painting something that makes me feel really happy.”
Now she lives on Marco Island with her husband and exhibits her work at Art2Amaze Studio & Gallery at 6210 Shirley Street, Naples. More of her work can be seen on lisettllorensartanddesign.com.