Beautiful Bizarre: The Visceral Paintings of Laura Castellanos
Recently I had the opportunity to view one of Laura Castellanos’ paintings first hand, and my immediate reaction was I wanted to lick it. It was entirely visceral. The colour was so gloriously candied pink, and the resin surface so glossy, it looked like a delicious confection, and I was sorely tempted to give in to my desire, right there in the gallery, when no one was watching. And I wasn’t the only viewer the artwork made feel that way. Other’s told me they felt that way too.
An unusual technique Laura is beginning to experiment with in completing her paintings is the application of a resin layer on top of the finished artwork. It was partly this glossiness that led to my intense response to one of her resin-coated works recently.