We had the good fortune of connecting with Fia Pitre and we’ve shared our conversation below.
Hi Fia, how do you think about risk?
As an artist, risk-taking is essential to expanding and evolving my practice. Creating new work often feels like a balancing act of combining new experimentation with processes I’ve already developed. Though this often feels uncomfortable, I find that allowing myself to take risks as I create my landscape paintings makes space for unintentional and beautiful interactions to occur across the canvas. Like in nature, I find that much of the beauty in landscape painting happens in those subtle moments of interactions between light, color, and atmosphere, like sunlight refracting through a thick fog layer and dispersing the light in blended misty shades across a rolling landscape. While I paint, I focus on allowing these instances of overlaying color and light, which result in unintended moments of atmosphere and the feeling of the landscape emerges. Risk also plays a crucial role in the research for my artwork. I have always been a bit of a risk-taker when it comes to the outdoors, and incorporating this love of the wilderness into my artwork has taken me to some amazing and dangerous places. I will often take trips deep into the landscapes I am depicting, following fire scars and rivers, or camping along old mining tracks to gather mineral pigments from these specific landscapes. I incorporate these pigments into my paintings in tandem with oil paints, as a sort of mineral sample of these environments and moments where humans and the wilderness interact. These instances of interaction can have stunningly beautiful and cataclysmically disastrous effects, and through my paintings, I work to capture these moments to document and share this dramatic moment of change occurring on our planet.
Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
I pound rocks and burnt bones to make my own handmade pigments. Originally from Honolulu, Hawaii much of my work is inspired by the lush beauty of the islands, but also the fragility of a landscape confronted by the onslaught of climate change. I grew up in the studios of my grandparents, aunt, and mother, and this exposed me to art and classical oil painting from a young age. This allowed me to delve into the historical practice and pigment and paint making, and I incorporate these processes into my landscape paintings to simultaneously carry the historical lineage of landscape painting but also serve as mineral samples of the specific locations I am depicting. I work to create a painting that is both appealing, journalistic, and works to inform the viewer of the specific event or concept within the work. Witnessing human-made environmental damage and changes inform my painting practice, and I seek to investigate: how can art be a tool for healing human-made climate impacts? I am currently completing my final year of my Bachelors in Painting & Drawing from California College of the Arts, and post-graduation I hope to continue my research and create projects that work to educate, inspire, and positively transform my viewers’ perception of our shared future. Through my landscape painting, I couple research-driven imagery with a cinematic and colorful visual language to highlight the tensions that coexist within the conversations about the future of our planet.
Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
I am obsessed with the outdoors. So just getting out on a hike, or sitting next to a river, or simply walking around in my neighborhood with friends checking out all the seasonal blooming plants, always feels like such a magical time. Also, making food, and getting to go to my local butcher and pick up some ingredients. Simply having the time to get to cook a labor-intensive meal with my best friends is one of my favorite things to do, especially if we can find some seasonal ingredients. The trip isn’t complete without a visit to a local gallery or the museum, and then hopefully we get to dance the night away a time or two.
Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
I would not be where I am today without the endless support of my family, friends, and professors. My parents Tanya Pitre, a great sculptor herself, Todd Georgopapadakos, a man of a mission to help the planet, and my little brother Xander, who is sadly no longer with us, but his passion, humor, and strength are a constant inspiration to me. I am so grateful to John Pitre, Ginette Pitre, and Dawn Pitre, my grandparents, and aunt, whose studios I grew up in and who taught me much of what I know about painting. I also want to give a shout-out to my art school California College of the Arts and my many professors there who have supported me and helped me to evolve my practice and understanding of my work.
Website: www.fiapitre.com
Instagram: @fia_pitre_art
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/fia-pitre/
Twitter: @fia_pitre_art
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/FiaPitreArt