Stream of Consciousness Imaginings by Oil painter Cynthia Howard

There is something satisfying almost seeing Realism artwork come together. Like a jigsaw puzzle solved piece by piece, colour by colour, shape past shape the creative person matches the colours and proportions to the original until a recognisable replica takes shape. Australian artist Cynthia Howard draws from life often to continually add to her visual vocabulary but information technology's not her Realism artwork, her portraits and landscapes, that are most unique to her fashion. It's the Stream of Consciousness imaginings that lean on the rich vocabulary shaped by years of drawing realism and an expansive artistic background spanning the fashion, interior pattern and story-telling industries equally an actor, that stir the most interest.

Cynthia Howard's imaginative paintings commencement as stream of consciousness sketches in pencil or ink and normally suggest an unclear but intriguing narrative. There is 'Expecting', an oil painting completed in early 2022 that was based on a sketch the artist 'twenty-four hours dreamed' at a time whilst her two younger sisters were both simultaneously pregnant. In the painting a significant woman kneels, her manus outstretched and eyes gazing upwards to a cloud filled sky expecting child and anticipating the impending tempest. The clouds themselves alternate and flip in a pattern that stretches below the horizon suggesting that this scene is occurring in some sort of limbo time and identify. Information technology is this surreal aspect to her work coupled with Cynthia Howard's fondness for geometric shapes and hard edged lines that might make 1 say that her work is somewhere between Cubism and Surrealism.

Artist Cynthia Howard

Sometimes information technology's non and then much the subconscious or imagined story that propels Cynthia to develop a work merely an allure to a strong design element. For case, "Adult female in Midnight Water" was a stream of consciousness sketch that started as a biro doodle in a sketchbook. The creative person liked the shape of the curved line of the torso disappearing into the h2o so much that she decided to refine a painted version of it. Though at that place is usually a strong narrative sometimes the visual poesy of shapes and lines is enticing plenty as is with the case of "Woman, child, cat" that reads slightly more than every bit a visual design specially with the suspended flowers framing the limerick than as characters existing in a defined place with a suggested story.

Having studied both a Bachelors degree in Visual Fine art and a Bachelors of Fine Art (Interim) Cynthia Howard has an intrigue for the psychological, for storytelling and narrative, for wanting to ain all of ourselves simply also wanting to invite u.s. to be our most powerful. Her groundwork in mode influences her to pose her characters in dynamic positions that have upward space, that are at ease with themselves and exhibit confidence.

In "Woman in Midnight H2o" the subject confidently looks over her shoulder and delicately outstretches her hand. It's an case of how Cynthia'southward background in mode nonetheless influences her piece of work: "When I was a child I wanted to be a fashion designer. I later realized I didn't enjoy sewing as much as I enjoyed drawing the designs and the people wearing them – I liked cartoon these confident, expressive, powerful women I imagined I could 1 day exist or exist effectually. I think when I still sketch today that'due south what comes out of my subconsciousness. It's that wanting to be fully homo as there is power in cocky ownership and wanting to really focus on and attend a feeling of confidence and beauty. I love looking at the clouds and I adore my cats and flowers and so they often make an appearance."

'The Sunburnt Fisherman' was completed straight onto oil paper with paint and is one of the artists favourite works: "It's not a complicated design and was created apace but I feel there is then much metaphorically in it. The Fisherman's pare is the aforementioned as the sunburnt red sky alluding that he has become 1 with his harsh environment. There's also the arm of the figure in the gunkhole backside that starts to merge and get one with the vessel and water – both becoming part of the sea. The hat of the fisherman with the cross on tiptop I see a lot in likewise. He's skinny and his optics look tired and worn but there is something kingly about his lid and the way he gazes out ahead." It will exist interesting to see what comes out of Cynthia Howard'southward stream of consciousness imaginings in the years to come up.

More of Cynthia Howard's art can be viewed at www.cynthiahoward.com or on her Instagram page @cynthiajhoward

Woman with child and Cat "Mother, child, true cat" Oil on oil paper.