Featured Artist: Nicole Renée Pantano, In Search Of Imperfections and Hidden Secrets

We have the pleasure today to interview the American painter and photographer Nicole Renée Pantano. She lives in Liverpool, England and creates the most beautiful and colorful textures we have ever seen. Her paintings resemble old British walls, broken, rusted and cracked, various layers deteriorated and covered with patina. We are impressed by her talent and really enjoyed the interview that we now share with you.

Blue Opium © Nicole Pantano 

Tell us about your art.

My current works are based on three general frameworks or approaches: wall, skins, and paper. My wall paintings are inspired by anything that crumbles, cracks, and peels, any aspect of the natural process of deterioration. Old English walls, especially, serve as a main source of inspiration for these works. The textures and colors, and the subtle surprises revealed during the process of deterioration, are the characteristics I attempt to recreate in my paintings. Through a unique process, which has taken me years to master, I try and recreate a wall’s history of layers, imperfections, and hidden secrets. I scrape, peel, and scratch away at the canvas, introduce layer upon layer of materials only to repeat the process of slowly discovering something that’s been hiding in the cracks and layers. My skins, on the other hand, are sculptures made of acrylic paint formed and molded into a particular form or “movement” that is then attached to a canvas. Finally, for my paper series, I use stained, ripped, dyed, and glued paper, combine it with general aspects of my wall paintings, and bring everything together with a special adhesive. I then fight the canvas with my tools until the entire composition speaks, complains, and refuses to be silent. 

SLAPSTICK (H) © Nicole Pantano 

What inspires you?

I am inspired by textures and colors, no matter where I find them, on a wall, on a piece of crumpled paper, on someone’s face, anywhere, really. At times, I come across colors left over on a scraper or spatula, or a piece of paper towel, that might inspire a color combination for one of my next pieces. And looking at works by other artists always provides additional inspiration and motivation. 

Fallen © Nicole Pantano 

How would you describe your style? Do you have a favorite subject to paint or draw? 

Well, I think my art is certainly abstract, though I think sometimes it’s actually quite the opposite, and that’s why I don’t necessarily care for “labels.” Whatever I create comes from a deep-rooted need to express myself, a need for freedom and discovery. Who knows, the next piece might be a hyper-realistic portrait of a dog! 

I don’t really have a favorite subject or subject matter. As mentioned above, I’m really into walls, broken stuff, and textures at the moment. If anything, I’ve always been attracted to entropy, disorder, deterioration, imperfection, and impermanence.

Je t'aime © Nicole Pantano 

What are you working on right now?

I’ve started working on a haiku series, miniature copies, if not fragments, of some of my larger pieces. The focus here is on simplicity and juxtaposition. I’m also experimenting with crystals, but they’re not speaking yet.

Visit Nicole's website for more colorful pieces of art. You can find her on etsy, follow her on  twitter and facebook.