We couldn’t be happier to be welcoming Melbourne based artist Lara Karasavvidis to our gallery. Lara’s recent work is inspired by coastal landscapes. This seed of inspiration was planted fifteen years ago in the beautiful coastal town of Port Fairy where her family have a house. A love that has only strengthened over the years travelling back and forth from Melbourne. While she has amassed thousands of photos and years of inspiration from these trips, it is only in the past few years, initiated by the endless time provided by lockdowns, that she has translated this into a body of work. Her evocative description of the Port Fairy landscape as “magical and moody, harsh but peaceful” mirrors the mood of the stunning artworks from her latest collection.
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When asked about when and how she first became interested in art, Lara shared that she “can't remember a time when I wasn't interested in art. It has always been a part of my life, ever since I was a child. Many of my parents' friends were and still are artists and I loved being in their studios, enthralled by their work and curious about their tools of the trade.” At the age of twelve, she asked her parents if she could do extra curricular art classes, so they sent her to a life drawing class run by one of their friends. Amusingly, young Lara had no idea what life drawing was and got an enormous shock when the model took off her dressing gown! Thankfully, she found that she loved these classes and continued to attend life drawing class every Sunday morning until she was twenty-one, regardless of what post party state she was in! “While my subject matter is no longer nudes, one of the longstanding lessons I took from this experience was the discipline of returning to the same subject again and again and finding new ways to see and interpret it.”
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One of Lara's photographs of Port Fairy
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By the time she started tertiary study in fine art in 2003, Lara was confident in drawing and painting, but a Diploma of Visual Art at Swinburne enabled her to broaden her skills across a range of art forms including photography, digital imaging, video, sculpture, painting and printmaking. She then went on to complete a Bachelor of Fine Art in Printmaking at the VCA between 2005 – 2007. “This was an incredible time in my creative journey and it was here that I found my visual language. Guided by the most wonderful technicians and lecturers I learnt so many specialist skills including etching, aquatint and lithography and was pushed to interpret concepts in ways that were new and challenging for me.”
Lara has taught art in a secondary school over the past 12 years, this too has enabled her to constantly build her skills. “I can't count the hours of professional development I have attended after looking at my subject list and realising I have to teach sewing, wheel throwing or darkroom photography - none of which are my fortes! You have to be a jack of all trades and sometimes fake it til you make it. Just don't tell my students!”
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Sneak peek of Lara's sketchbooks
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One of our favourite things to learn about from our artists is their individual purpose of why they create and what they try to achieve through their art. Lara explains that her reasons for making art are twofold. “Firstly, my aim is simply to create pictures. Pictures that draw you in to explore up close but set a mood from far away. Pictures that suggest depth but remain flat, that create a stillness and calm. Pictures that an audience can connect with and feel moved by. I hope my artwork does all of these things and when creating each new piece, these are the ideas that I think about.
Secondly, amidst the juggle of running an art department at a secondary school and raising two children, my Friday studio day is a respite in my week, a time when I focus on one thing and decompress. It brings me joy and grounding and fills my cup for the week ahead.”
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Details of Lara's process. Lino cutting and artworks in progress
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This latest collection of artworks are a combination of drawing, painting and printmaking. Lara’s creative process involves frequently referencing photographs as she enjoys moving between representation and abstraction. She pulls apart aspects of the forms, colours, spaces and textures experienced in nature and brings them back together again to create a mood or sense of a place. Her sketchbooks are full of small drawings, paintings and collages, where she’ll flesh out ideas before taking them into more complete works. She also works digitally to reimagine and combine photographs with drawings or hand made textures.
In smaller artworks, Lara sometimes creates a base layer in lino print and then paints over the top, while larger works usually start with drawing. She uses acrylic paint mixed with medium to slow the drying time, so she can scratch into the surfaces with an etching needle. Repetitive detail and mark making is not only a huge aspect of her work but one of her favourite parts as she finds the process meditative. “Apart from my trusty etching needle, I create this detail through pencil, pen, posca, pastel and old paintbrushes, drawing away at the surface methodically. I believe that drawing and making marks are a universal primal experience for human beings. Whether in the dirt or with a pen, the physical expression of drawing just feels natural and good! Hopefully that expression is also communicated through the work.” The marks and textures in her work are like a gift that keeps on giving when experienced up close. Lara has a special talent of capturing a mood within her art. Viewing her artworks from day to day, this moodiness can seem to change, much like the magical tides and coasts that inspired them.
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Apart from coastal landscapes, her artistic influences are constantly evolving depending on what she’s working on. The key artists that she often finds herself going back to again and again however, are Agnes Martin, for her meditative line work and neutral colour schemes, Alberto Giacommeti for the felt and gestural qualities of his drawings, Pablo Picasso for his abstraction and Luc Tuymans for his monochromatic explorations.
Recently, particularly since Covid, Lara has been extremely grateful for the community of artists that she has reconnected with online. “We bounce ideas off each other, share our hints and tricks and promote one another, leading to exhibitions and opportunities. In a time in my life where I can't always get out to openings etc. this group of artists have been instrumental in motivating me to continue practicing my art.” This makes us so happy to hear as it reflects some of the things we believe strongly in at Forman, supporting artists and being a space that provides inspiration where everyone is welcome. We can’t wait to share Lara’s latest artworks with you. We hope you enjoy them as much a we do!
You can view all of Lara’s artwork HERE and even better, you can experience them in person by dropping into the gallery anytime.