Guyla
Nationality :
French
Age :
52 y.o.
Residing :
France
Guyla
Painting
Artist’s prices ranging from
600 € to 6 200 €
Followers Art Traffikers
0

Being an artist, to paint means reaching and pushing back one’s technical and emotional limits. I study Man, his flesh, the depth of his stare which both reflect the intangible, and I illustrate an inexhaustible parallel world, whose boundaries are defined by our own emotions.

Guyla

Introducing Guyla

Guyla is an artist like we love them : endlessly searching, continually evolving, always seeking an absolute yet all the while bearing in mind that her quest is…infinite. Over time, depending on her desires and questioning, will emerge a series of artworks. Each one is created according to a certain process, a concept or alternate idea (at times surprising), but each being an artistic exploration whose fruit will nourish her future works and her way of painting altogether.

 

However, when looking at Guyla’s artworks as a whole, a common thread appears : Man. And although certain series explore this topic, in various ways, Guyla always comes back to painting portraits the “academic way”, and more particularly to painting these masked women…

 

Who is behind and what is hidden, both literally and figuratively, in these paintings ? In the answer lies Guyla’s particularity, the distinctive features of her artworks, of her talent and doubts which fuel the way she paints and incite her to explore endlessly, but always with a certain emotional ambivalence whose boundaries she continuously pushes further. But I’ll come back to that later…

 

First, I wish to speak about her career path.

Guyla is one of those “thwarted” artists. For as long as she can remember, she has always loved to draw and to paint. And even though her family setting contributed to her discovery of art (“almost every weekend was spent at an exhibit or visiting a museum…”), it also encouraged her to follow a “real profession”, going as far as forbidding her from entering the art schools she had been accepted into…the Fine Arts School or even the prestigious Saint Martin’s School of Art in London.

 

By default, she chose advertising and led a very successful career as the artistic director in the most renowned agencies, including Saatchi. “Drawing and painting were always omnipresent in my life, in parallel with my work, but my work load didn’t leave me very much free time. After having spent 10 years working in an advertising agency, totally burnt out, weary and above all oppressed, a yearning desire for freedom and to find myself again (my paint brushes, my identity and vocation) prevailed.”

 

At that point, Guyla quit advertising and devoted herself entirely to painting. She began exhibiting her artworks in fairs, quickly entering galleries thereafter, and gained the recognition in iconic places such as the Place de Vosges in Paris, hence exposing her to a more informed, international clientele.

Let us go back to her painting, her artworks.

 

She works in series with an intention, definition and technic that emerge from thought-out inspirations, a ripened intention; often after a first experimental phase, like when she decided to explore collages to combine to her paintings. A first artwork emerges, the beginning of a story with a main theme in mind “stretched out” onto successive canvasses, until the desire fades away or a new one arises. And since each artwork contributes to the next, each series pervades the one to come. Simultaneously, Guyla explores other fields such as landscapes or abstract, but without ever showing them, like style and technical exercises, but challenging her quest for the absolute in painting. And, although she knows that this absolute is unattainable : “When speaking of painting, of art, I do not grasp the expression that refers to “accomplished artists” for the very essence of being an artist is the endless evolution, quest, questioning and doubt, and the intent to push back personal limits.”

Which brings me back to that emotional ambivalence I mentioned earlier and whose boundaries she continuously pushes further, and to the question of who hides and what is hidden behind Guyla’s artworks, such as with the “masked” women often seen in her works.

 

Her stroke is ambivalent, both sharp and blurred, like melted together. Her color palette is also ambivalent, both classical and modern, neither vivid nor pastel; like light which is neither bright nor obscure, the grazing light of a late afternoon. A gaze, when present, also nuances interpretations. The end result is the onlooker’s emotional ambivalence when contemplating Guyla’s artworks ; an ambivalent interpretation that is always based on one’s own feelings. Here lies Guyla’s talent, identity and the potency of her work.

 

Her artworks are always extreme, but on the edge, poised between different emotions, interpretations, or stories…The masked women are timeless. The masks recall the Renaissance period but their hairstyles and clothing are undefinable…these very same masks can convey debauchery, while the stare can border sensuality and mistrust, or dreams and gentleness. Also, one could quickly see a peculiar resemblance between these women and the artist herself…A self-portrait ? “No” she says, but goes on to add, laughingly, “perhaps…I don’t know”. Each person will feel what he or she wants to feel, but always with a certain degree of doubt…of mystery. 

Always on the edge, the limits reflected in Guyla’s paintings which our open to our interpretation, our feelings, our fantasies even, in the true sense of the word. I would even go as far as to speak of a delicate seduction, based on glances, leaving the spectator in doubt : conquered or rejected ? Guyla’s artworks toy with a seduction, elegant and gentle, but emotionally intense for the onlooker. This is why we love Guyla’s artworks; the ambivalence, the mystery, and the shivers provoked by all that emanates from them; the fruit of each component, including the ample, generous materials Guyla uses in all her artworks.

 

Although she cannot clearly explain why Man is her key subject, perhaps it is merely because of the complexity, the ambivalence and subtle game of seduction which is at the root of this mystery, the doubts…the shivers, the bond. The key might be in the words revealed by Guyla during a conversation : “Man is alone. To paint and being an artist is isolating, and I feel alone…I need to belong to a group”.

 

And just like the mystery told by each of her artworks, Guyla maintains the mystery about her future series, what her desires are and how she has evolved. However, history has taught us that whenever she has gone astray from portraits, she comes back to them, but more intense, in both what they convey and make us feel.

 

To contemplate Guyla’s artworks and discover her universe means giving in to your emotions, to let them speak out, and to be “tempted and seduced”. So, without further ado, I leave you to discover Guyla’s artworks. If the charm works then I encourage you to follow her closely for her work is in constant evolution, which makes the pleasure even greater !

 

3 ARTISTS SHE ADMIRES

Pablo Picasso Le Caravage Diego Vélasquez

 

 

Latest posts about the artist

Find all posts Find all posts