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Deceive the eye


" what I try to achieve from my portraits is to be able to convey the soul within the reality "


How does one go from restoring antiquities to portraiture of animals and people? What do these two activities have in common? Apparently, nothing.


Erica Del Vecchio worked for years in the restoration of ancient works such as the Riace Bronzes and in the recovery of human tombs at various archaeological sites. However, when she no longer felt the restoration field suited her, she slowly shifted to antiques and wall decoration… how? By following the allure of deceiving the eye.




amphoras

The antiquarian field, like that of restoration, is based on being able to renovate something by constructing missing parts that 100% imitate reality. Exactly as with wall decoration: the trompe-l'œil technique is based on enlarging rooms or modifying rooms by introducing pictorial elements that were not present before.





Portraiture, achieved through a time of labor crisis, also follows the same philosophy: to deceive the viewer's eye through hyperrealism, a technique that involves the close-to-photographic reproduction of people or objects on canvas or sculpture.


We show you





To create these incredible portraits, exclusively on commission, Erica uses mainly pencil, paper and lots and lots of empathy honed through years of experience.

Oh yes, because it takes a great deal of sensitivity to read the character of a person or animal from photos and then convey it in a portrait that not only physically resembles the original, but also speaks about it.



pencil portrait


"a portrait, as much as it is an imitation, is different depending on who is doing it"


One of the greatest difficulties in creating a portrait is interpreting the expressiveness of the person, because one shadow changes your character, the smallest detail can completely change the final result of the work.


Not to mention time! For portraits, time is never enough: they need settling time, which, however, you often cannot have, to combat momentary dissatisfaction and look at the painting with different eyes, as any true artist does.


An artist is never satisfied with his work, this drives him to always continue to study and experiment, and he is a master at hiding it from others: it all revolves around deceiving the eye.



 

Note: The black and white portraits are part of the private collection displayed at the

Ristorante Alla Campana in Cordenons (PN)






Lest you miss Erica's other wonderful work:

Facebook: Erica Delvecchio

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