As snow blankets the world, a season unfolds like a whimsical canvas inviting us to join its tapestry of recreational activities. When it comes to capturing winter’s enchanting spectacle on canvas, Erica Sturla is a master.
Let's embark on a heartwarming journey into the realm of winter's joy, where laughter echoes in the air and every snow-covered moment is a celebration waiting to be embraced.
Erika’s paintings made with polymer clay fully encapsulate the magic of winter: the laughter that rises with each snowball thrown, the enchanting dance of snowflakes, the thrill of gliding across ice or sliding down the hill.
In her artistic process, every painting starts with several thumbnail sketches, followed by a more defined pencil drawing at the full size of the canvas. This becomes her working plan and the clay figures are checked against as she creates them. She appreciates the humor, color and movement that three-dimensional figures bring to her creations.
Depicting scenes with people doing everyday things is often the starting point of Erica’s paintings. Pavilion Ice Rink is a painting inspired by an ice rink that appears outside the iconic Brighton Pavilion every year. “It is a real spectacle!” the artist says.
In Erica’s creations the clay figures take on expressive qualities, with easily adjustable limbs and almost always displaying smiles. Ice Skaters was her first attempt at skaters. One of the things she enjoyed the most during the creation process was painting the winter trees.
After completing the clay modeling and baking, Erica focuses on background painting, approaching it with a studied perspective. “I think I paint in a fairly illustrative way,” she describes, “challenging myself to get the serious issues of light/shade and perspective right. I just love that relationship between sensible background painting and figures that are anything but serious! Now the painting will start to come together and I can think about adding little details in the paint as I see how the figures sit against the background.”
In the quiet beauty of Erica’s winter polymer clay paintings, we discover not just scenes frozen in time but a vibrant celebration of the season's spirit.
With each stroke, the artist has woven tales of joy, color and movement, encapsulating the magic of winter in a medium as timeless as the season itself.
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