FB

Name: Marissa Calbet

Country represented: Spain

Personal web site: www.marissacalbet.com

1st Award Painting – X Florence Biennale 2015

Marissa Calbet was born in Reus (Spain) in 1963. She lives in Cambrils, where she also has her painting studio. She graduated in Law at the University of Barcelona, and yet her long-time passion and flair for the fine arts gradually turned into her vital need to express herself creatively through painting, which she began as an artist in 2005.

Specialising in oil painting on canvas, and preferring the spatula to the brush, Marissa depicts sailboats hidden in the fog, boats that move through calm or rough seas, lakes with unique atmospheres, smooth landscapes with many colours and reflections in the water, promenades that drive the viewer’s eye into the picture so that they may feel being part of it as if they were immersed…in a subtle melody.

Marissa comes to a slow deconstruction of forms, which find their raison d’être only in distant views, seemingly expanding at an unattainable infinity. In her pictorial visions of the world everything appears to emerge from light and brume so that the softness of its atmosphere arouses a feeling of inner calm. The viewers are invited to immerse in such an overwhelming dimension, which is at the same time real and symbolic, ideal and imaginary.

For the works presented at the Xth Florence Biennale in 2015, Marissa Calbet was awarded the 1st Prize for Painting.

In June 2016, the Academy of the Arts, Sciences and Letters of Paris awarded her a recognition for her paintings and artistic career. In 2012 that same Academy, of which she is a member, had awarded her the bronze medal. Mention should also be made of the 2nd Prize for Painting that she received in 2014 within the framework of the International Contemporary Art Exhibition held at the Moya Museum of Young Art, Vienna.

What is your notion of art, and how do interpret that idea as an artist?

As far as I am concerned art is an interpretation of reality, almost in an involuntary way, through tools and work. That is very rewarding to me as the world I see changes depending on the instant and mood in which I interpret it.
Life is full of magical moments: I wish to capture these moments and be able to interpret and fix them on canvas, and engage viewers as well..
If I am successful in being able to share my feelings through painting, thus arousing positive response in the audience, my work as an artist will make sense.

Please tell us about your sources of inspiration, your reference models.

My sources of inspiration can be found in everyday life – the sea, a misty landscape, a small place in a forest near a lake, a scent, a promenade, a colour, a gesture, music…
There are many feelings which, at a time, I wish to capture so that they may last for a long time. Perhaps more than the view, it is the atmosphere and the emotion at the very moment in which I capture it that matters: in that instant that I paint the image in my mind, which will be reflected on the canvas, through execution.

What characterises your artistic research from a formal or aesthetic point of view?

Being aesthetic for the sake of aesthetics is not enough. Neither is being formal.
Art must reach the viewer, I believe. That is the most important, and also the most difficult thing to achieve through the work of art.

What characterises your artistic production as far as materials and techniques, or media are concerned?

Most of my paintings are oils on canvas and are painted using a spatula. I also enjoy playing with textures. Another of the techniques that I use is finding an in-between the painted and the unpainted. In the end, I think, the result is an artwork in which different shades and nuances can be found.
Currently I am experimenting different techniques on natural bases.

How was your experience at the Florence Biennale?

My experience in the Florence Biennale, as expected, was fantastic – at a personal level as much as at a professional level.
I felt appreciated by the Organizers and the Members of the Jury, especially when I was given the award, and I valued their sincere recognition.
I would remark that it is an important prize in the art world, and represents a big step forward in my career.