Studio Information
Corte Madera Town Center
419
Next to Anthem, across from Crate & Barrel
About The Artist
I collect moments. Moments with people I’ve met, places I’ve been, and things I’ve seen. As an artist with roots in classical realism, it’s important for me to paint moments realistically. But solely painting realism feels incomplete, and it can become a bit too academic for me. It’s not only about the visual recreation that is crucial in my work, but instilling an emotional sensation within my pieces holds an equal amount of relevance. I want to make my audience feel that they are walking down a rainy street, climbing up a sun drenched hill, or sitting in front of a loved one. I want a viewer to feel the moments I collect.
In my work, I find myself breaking free from traditional ways of painting and incorporating much more expressive means. I place highly developed detail next to looser, almost abstract, areas. I’m fascinated with how to combine near photographic rendering alongside the roughness of the palette knife, or the randomness of a loaded brush. This combination of realism and Impressionism techniques creates a natural tension in my paintings, as well as directs where I want the eye to travel. I also create compositions outside of conventional rules and gravitate towards subjects that do not necessarily follow a standard of beauty. There is a bit of provocation in all of this, as I am playing off of and challenging the traditional ways art should be, but it is also an invitation. An encouragement to see what else beauty entails.
Calvin Lai’s painting process is a mixture of seeing, distorting, and reinterpreting with threads of realism weaving the backdrop of where his artistic style is today. Calvin loved to draw when he was a child and to make a picture appear lifelike became his goal. Through constantly working, Calvin’s art began to breathe, and his fascination with value and perspective blossomed. Eventually, he moved from where he grew up in Los Angeles to San Francisco. There he studied drawing and printmaking at San Francisco State University. In 2008, he enrolled in the Academy of Art for illustration, but began painting instead. He found that he preferred the fine arts over commercial illustration, and now works as a full time oil painter.
Since then he has continued to develop and refine his oil painting skills. Lai’s work has been shown nationally in galleries, group exhibitions and juried shows. He has executed a large number of commissioned portraits over the past several years, and his paintings have appeared in national and international publications. His recent work has returned to a serious study of the figure, which has always been the anchor for his creative drive. His goal has gone beyond mere technical interpretation to a deeper sense of what the energy of the figure feels like. This goal has also carried over into his recent still lifes. In his ongoing series “In the Land of Giants,” Calvin seeks to make a viewer feel as if they are part of the still life witnessing a world that is both fantastical and humorous. But the borders for what he chooses to paint has expanded to a variety of subjects, including cityscapes, and ultimately he is driven to capture everything around him through his paints, brushes, and determination.
Oil Paint
Contact Information
510-229-7672