Confucius once said, “choose a job you love and you will never have to work a day in your life.” This is exactly how Italian painter Chiara’s life played out as she followed in the path of what she loves.
Truth be told, Chiara didn’t choose art; art chose her. Since she was a child, there has always been a desire for her to express herself and her emotions. In her case, practice came before theory as she would find herself drawing, painting, and experimenting with different techniques without even knowing what they were called.
1. Was it easy for you to be where you are now?
Let me tell you that I really have a lot more to achieve, there are so many dreams that did not come true yet, some very important steps of my career that I still need to meet. I am used to thinking very big and setting for myself targets that seem almost impossible to achieve. I like the thrill of big challenges and I love that unique feeling you get when you finally make it.
To be honest, It was absolutely not easy at the beginning it was actually very hard, I’ve endured and not given up and at the end, everything fell in place, the turning point was realizing that I needed to give myself time and trying to see this not as a job but as a fun activity. I felt calm and began working in a relaxed way and the magic happened. When you’re a kid you dream of being a successful painter all day, but you don’t know what it means to pay a living with your dream until you do it
2. What do you think is the key to success?
To me the key factors were:
- Never be scared of hard work
- Knowing that it wasn’t going to be easy
- Thinking big
- Never look back
- Set almost impossible goals
- Try to be better every day
- Don’t forget to have fun
3. Explain what happens when you paint, what is your routine, what is the process?
Well here is where the majority of my craziness come to light! When I do paint, I try at least to behave a bit normal, but I don’t succeed much.
Everything begins with an idea, an emotion or set of emotions that I want the painting to convey. I might do a series of digital or traditional sketches or even a study on a smaller canvas. I never paint on a solid white canvas, it makes me nervous and the oil doesn’t flow that easily on the canvas as it comes out from the art store… so I would prime the canvas. I always do an underpaint with acrylics or oils, the colors don’t matter, some of my bluest paintings were done on an orange underpaint and vice versa.
Once the underpaint is dried I begin the actual painting. This is the moment where I really need to be focused, a lot of emotions get into the scene, I would go from feeling very proud of my creation to wanting to destroy the canvas, so I need to bridle all of the emotions and complete the painting. After many hours or days, when the painting is completed, I would let it dry for a few weeks and only then add any needed details. It is quite a process, it is easier to do it than to explain it.
4. Do you offer workshops?
I absolutely do! www.chiaramagni.com/workshop
Even if I am pretty busy, I’ve decided to offer workshops as I really care about other artists and I really want to do my best to help and inspire them, if someone thinks that there is something good in me and wants to learn it I am absolutely willing to help them!
You can reach out to Chiara on
Instagram: @chimfineart
Website: http://www.chiaramagni.com/
Facebook: chimfineart
