Liana Delgado was born in Guayaquil, Ecuador, yet raised In United States since the age of two. Her formative years were spent in Orlando, Florida, mentored by her high school art instructor, Leon Theodore. He taught her fundamental skills in drawing and painting. He even encouraged her to exhibit and choose art as a career. From her success, she eventually studied fine art and design at Parsons School of Design, New York and California State University, Northridge. She chose a profession in art directing working in various arenas such as, advertising agencies, retail catalogs and print companies.
Following her thirteen years experience in commercial art, the artist's visual senses longed to return to fine art. While continuing to work full-time at Ducharme Communications, Inc. in Atlanta, Liana took courses in painting at the Atlanta College of Art and Loveland Academy. She developed an interest in oil painting figurative and landscape pictures. Her enduring thirst for painting eventually provoked her to retire from art directing, which consequentially lead her to graduate in 2004 with a BFA in painting at Lyme Academy College of Fine Arts. During her academic studies, the artist won several scholarships through Lyme Academy some of which include, The Deane Keller Fund, The Elizabeth Chandler Fund, and the Lyme Academy President's Award to name a few.
The artist has exhibited in Georgia and Connecticut. Her work is in private collections throughout the United States and abroad. She was also accepted into the yearly competitive, Nude 2003 Lexington Arts Legue exhibit in Lexington, Kentucky. Other rewards include sales of donated paintings to non-profit organizations such as: Paul & Lisa, Atlanta All Stars Talent Show Network and Lyme Academy College of Fine Arts, Annual Artsball Scholarship Fund. Liana permanently resides in Cumming, Georgia working full-time as a fine artist at Tannery Row Artist Colony.
ARTIST'S STATEMENT
Still life painting evokes movement-it is not "still." The objective is to design a stirring picture that will ruffle a static canvas.
My recent still life visuals are the painted vibrant colors, flat spacial designs and pictorial puns, influenced by Chinese ceramics. For example, in my work Peacock, I appropriated the botanical design from the porcelain object d'art, Bottle vase with Plum Flowers, made in China during the Qing dynasty. The tablecloth pattern, in lower part of the painting, is derived from its repetitive calligraphic drawing. The bottle's brilliant cobalt underglaze influenced my overall color scheme. I designed the (flora part) of the still life to stand erected and expanded, by posing the "Somona Forever Flower," in a fanned out or peacock shape. The succulent's spiney trunks, and tiny cluster of flowers, mirror the plum flower tablecloth decoration. A spectrum of aqua, blue, green and purple matches the colorful eye-like markings of a peacock feather. In Chinese culture, the male peafowl is prized for its size, and honored for its beauty. Blue became associated with rank or court officials during the Qing dynasty. Another symbolic reference I use, is the Chinese sound of the word vase, ping, which is the same as the word (or rebus) for peace, ping. Like our ancient Chinese masters, I embed my art with "traditional motifs," yet, explore my imagination for "unconventional design".
