An Artist Interview: Daria Callie

I recently got the opportunity to interview an Artist, Daria, which I have followed on social media for a while. She has a YouTube account called ‘Daria Callie’ where she does time lapse videos of her exquisite oil painting and explanation videos of colour mixing and how to paint with oils. I decided to get in touch with her to get some insight into her work and the questions I want to answer that correlates to my own work. To my delight she emailed me back and we have been in correspondence since. Here are the links to some of her social media:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dariacallie/

YouTube:

Who are you and what do you do?

My name is Daria Callie, I’ve been balancing a part time job as an architect-designer  and painting for a while now, I wish to transition into an art career full time in the future.

Where do you get the inspiration for your pieces from?

I get very Inspired by amazing artworks of other artists and simply looking at the world around me. I know this may sound trivial but that's the truth. I love seeing the works of other painters and seeing their different styles and techniques out there, it makes me want to create something myself.

Why did you choose to pursue art?

I've always thought that a career in visual arts is right for me. I developed an art and painting from a very sound age, somewhere around five. Since then I have tried many forms of visual arts; such as drawing, sculpting, design, photography, architecture. Overtime I figured that I’m so passionate about oil painting.

Do you have any favourite artists or artists that inspire you if so who?

Yes! So many… Harding Meyer, Florent Farges, Agnes Cecile, Happy d artist, John Singer Sargent, Jeremy Mann, Dimitra Milan, Kelsey Beckett, Relm…

If you could paint anyone in the world from the past or present who would you paint?           

                                                                  

Marilyn Monroe.                                                                       

How did you come to find your own individual painting style?

I am still in the process of finding my style. But to be honest, I think when you paint or draw a lot – it starts to show up itself. The more you paint the more you see what you like or don’t like and your style develops over time.

What do you think is your best piece of work?

I believe it’s yet to come.

What made you decide to start sharing your work on YouTube?

I thought that it would be cool because I like YouTube. I started sharing my work on Facebook and Instagram, then later decided why not try YouTube as well.

Do you think that our locations and the things we surround ourselves with can affect our moods, if so do you think in a painting a background can convey how a sitter is feeling internally?

Yes absolutely. I think the background has to support the main idea of the painting or feelings you’re trying to convey. Taking some of my works as an example, I wanted to convey a feeling of freedom or some kind of dreamy atmosphere; and I try to do this mostly through the technique where the background and figure overlap and cross-over each other. I love the effect it creates.

Would you say that emotions can be conveyed through colour, and what sort of emotions do you think your pieces convey?

Yes, I believe emotions can be portrayed through colour. When I was just starting out I used a totally different colour palette, it was more plain and rough. Now I tend to include more and more ‘soft’ and ‘soothing’ pastel colours in my paintings. I this largely due to the fact that it helps me to project emotions or feelings that I want to convey; like joy and serenity. I hope I am able to create some kind of a dreamy boundless and free atmosphere in my works.