Nadia Ferrante | 10 QUESTIONS
Nadia Ferrante is an Italian artist who has a strong sense of beauty and has been drawing and painting since childhood. She is passionate about art and is inspired by great Italian masters such as Caravaggio, Michelangelo, Raphael as well as Klimt, Degas and the Pre-Raphaelites. She took a drawing and painting course during her adolescence but her studies were more traditional and distant from art. She had to put her passion aside for a while due to family matters and a serious bereavement, but her passion for art reignited and became a necessity for her. She self-taught herself the techniques of soft pastels, oil colors, and graphite and primarily works on portraiture and figurative representation. She expresses herself mainly with dry pastels, pastel pencils, and the three-color technique as she feels it better matches her intentions with the finished work. Her style is described as imaginative realism, and her characters are dramatic, immersed in an enigmatic and intellectually rich context of philosophical contents that stimulate the most curious minds. She deals with issues related to the present and society's contradictions, but also loves classical themes and those linked to the tradition of Italian art. Throughout her work, she conveys her idea of beauty, emotionality, and sensuality.
1-What is different from your art work than other artists working in contemporary realism?
I always try to capture the mood of the subject, it fascinates me how the human body moves in space and how I can express a thought in an action. What strikes me most in the themes I deal with, is highlighting the condition of women in modern society and the theme of the environment. I try to express myself in various techniques, trying to put them on the same level of importance.
2-How important is process versus the end result?
I spend a lot of time creating the best surface for my work and in the creative development of the concept I want to achieve, to find the right way so that my intent corresponds to the final result, it is perhaps my favorite thing. I also always try to go a little further in my search for the perfect texture, be it in human figures or in the fabrics of clothes.
3-What is your ultimate goal when creating contemporary realism?
My ultimate goal is that of creating something unique that corresponds to the image in my mind so that it is clear to the viewer, and that it reaches as many people as possible.
4 -What do you like best about your work?
When the final work turns out to be even better than the starting image that forms in my mind
5-What do you do you like least about your work?
When in progress I realize that what I see does not work as it should, or that the initial project proves to be longer than expected to be implemented.
6 -Why contemporary realism?
Because it is the way of conceiving art that I have had since I was a child, linked to the great masters of the Italian Renaissance who were like superheroes for me.
7- Which are your greatest influences?
What most influences me is the Italian Renaissance and the Baroque, in particular Michelangelo, Raphael, Caravaggio in my formative years, later I fell in love with Degas who made me discover pastels, Klimt and the Pre-Raphaelites. . I have recently been admiring Annigoni’s work
8- What is your background?
I took a drawing and painting class for 2 years, a few workshops, a drawing and painting course in life, but over the years I’ve perfected the technique that works best for me, both in painting and drawing.
9- Name three artists you’d like to be compared to in history books.
Degas, Caravaggio, Annigoni.
10- Which is your favorite contemporary realism artwork today?