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For artist Lori Earley, painting what is beautiful comes both from inspiration within and from the outside world of cutting-edge fashion. Inspired by the imagination of high-end fashion icons such as Alexander McQueen or the exotic wardrobes of Jennifer Nicholson, Earley’s stunning portraits of esoteric women evoke mood and form as equally poignant and delicate as the textured gowns they wear. Each elegant and edgy oil painting requires a mastery of technical skill and painstaking execution. “Every painting begins as an idea stemming from my subconscious,” says Earley. As a preliminary creative process, Earley translates her ideas into multiple sketches for her evocative backgrounds or minimalist landscapes. The artist arranges a photo shoot in her studio with a model to enhance mood and accuracy of pose and figure. |
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Lori Earley’s Art Couture – Debra Anderson
For artist Lori Earley, painting what is beautiful comes both from inspiration within and from the outside world of cutting-edge fashion. Inspired by the imagination of high-end fashion icons such as Alexander McQueen or the exotic wardrobes of Jennifer Nicholson, Earley’s stunning portraits of esoteric women evoke mood and form as equally poignant and delicate as the textured gowns they wear. Each elegant and edgy oil painting requires a mastery of technical skill and painstaking execution.
“Every painting begins as an idea stemming from my subconscious,” says Earley. As a preliminary creative process, Earley translates her ideas into multiple sketches for her evocative backgrounds or minimalist landscapes. The artist arranges a photo shoot in her studio with a model to enhance mood and accuracy of pose and figure. Earley then creates a final sketch from her photograph of the model, and only then begins her painting in oil. For her new series of portraits, Earley’s models pose in original Jennifer Nicholson couture dresses. The celebrity fashion designer is an avid collector of Earley’s work.
Through this innovative approach, Earley succeeds in capturing a unique quality of the fashion designer’s vision and transforms it into a new artform. Earley fuses tangible beauty with a complex dream world. Her works are deeply personal, resulting in exotic, elongated figures in intense atmospheric surroundings. Earley’s melancholy portraits with exaggerated eyes evoke the eternal enigmatic qualities of mystery and longing.
Earley’s oil paintings blend elements of fashion and romance, rendering them distinctively contemporary. In her painting Caterpillar Dream, a young woman’s stylish ebony gown, complete with velvet corset and trim—a design inspired by Alexander McQueen—communicates a delicate sense of fluidity and fantasy, a metamorphosis complete. Paintings in progress also include the signature fashions of Versus, Donatalla Versace’s clothing line, and another inspired by Torrente in Earley’s commissioned painting, Portrait of Ms Celosse. Her popular painting Hope features a white Victorian-inspired dress from designer Nicolas Ghesquiere’s Balenciaga label.
Earley relates to these fashion designers sense of imagination and creates an alternate reality through aesthetics and appearance. She reveals her own inner emotional labyrinth through striking visuals and elements of play. “I have always been inspired by the complexities in fashion. To me, it is an artform as well,” explains Earley. “When I first started my fine art paintings, I felt vulnerable, so the figures mirrored that—they were all naked. I wanted to clothe them in beautiful creations just as beautiful and complex as they themselves.” Her infusion of Jean Paul Gautier’s sheer fabrics and clever design, Christian Lacroix’s ornamental flair, or the femininity of Jennifer Nicholson’s couture fashions, is a theatrical presentation; her poetic beauties exist in multiple realms.
For Earley, the elements of fashion serve as a cultural expression of the female subject’s pure emotion and raw beauty. Her architectural classicism is skewed with evocative modernity. Capturing the sensual side of virtue in her stunning portraits, Earley paints beauties ranging from angelic innocence to the moody maiden worthy of Edgar Alan Poe. Having only begun exhibiting her paintings in 2004, Lori Earley’s exposure has brought her international acclaim and recognition. A leading lady of the Pop Surrealist art movement, Earley casually questions, “Why not paint what is beautiful?”
To achieve an incredibly flawless surface complete with rich detail, Earley paints on ultra-smooth, fine imported Italian linen. Her skilled execution, from the sublime texture of a garment, to details of expressive eyes, to dramatic lighting, is one of visual perfection, with each painting often taking a month or more to complete. Due to the time-consuming nature of her work, the artist exhibits her paintings to the public only once a year. Earley’s upcoming solo show, which features some of her “Art Couture” paintings, will take place at Opera Gallery in New York City in April 2007. It will be Earley’s first solo exhibition on the East Coast. Creating ten large-scale paintings, some of which are 30” x 40” with prices ranging from $30,000 – $40,000, draw a waiting list of collectors hoping to acquire an original work.
