Sanae Dvorjetz

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I just wanted to do a wee blogette about these lovely paintings submitted as part of a level one assignment by Sanae Dvorjetz.
What struck me about them was that although they are ostensibly unpretentious and feel unself conscious and natural, the artist seems to inhabit the whole canvas and work the whole space with a sense of ownership which, coupled with the strong use of colour, use of negative space, shadows and composition, makes these little paintings very potent.
These photographs are not cropped at all. I rarely see such effective cropping in students work and  I am still finding pedestrian composition at all levels. Of course there is a place for that, but it is great to see someone being inventive in a neat unshowy way. These paintings feel almost subversive somehow. It’s all very Luc Tuymans and unsettling. The use of negative space and colour is also strongly inventive and creative and again seems to have come about quite naturally.

Generally these paintings seem to come from a good healthy place. There is a confidence and maturity here, and a direct relationship with the paint. This is someone who is lost in the moment, just relating to her subject and materials but with undercurrents of who knows what playing in the background. The odd decisions like the bizarre cropping or navy blue gaps in the middle of the fruit do not seem at all contrived or stylised – they might not even have been wholly conscious. Their very boldness comes from their internal logic and from Sanae’s sensitivity and nascent artistic identity. I will be interested to see if she cuts the heads off when doing the figuration project.