Biography
Santa Paula was born on October 6th, 1999. She has been studying at the Art Academy of Latvia since 2018 and is still on her way to getting a bachelor's degree in painting. Santa’s secondary education was acquired in Riga Centre's Language School, where she learned from 2006 to 2018.
In January 2020, Santa unveiled her first personal exhibition, titled “Grava” at the Skrunda Manor. Before enrolling in the academy, the foundations of the art have been acquired in Tereze Zake arts studio and in training courses for the Art Academy of Latvia. Santa Paula has a certificate in interior design, completing a course at the Alise Roze Design Studio Training Center in 2017.
Artistic description
Santa Paula makes her artworks primarily in the dry pastel technique. The paintings depict a glimpse of a moment passing by, its transitory and elusive nature, in an emotionally saturated and colorful expression. In the works of Santa Paula, there is a sense of splitters and translucency, so the thought remains unfinished and is able to “fly” with just that.
Not only colour and material but also the choice of specific size and design of the paper are characteristic. The artworks look like colorful postcards – the composition is compressed in a small frame that fits in one hand, thus pointing to the artist's own delicate and essential nature. But despite the small drawing area, it shows a wide spectrum of nuanced color harmony.
Santa Paula looks for new solutions to produce textures and optical effects, often combining technologically “incompatible” materials, for example, dry pastel pigment together with oil. The choice of dry pastel is also justified – it amplifies the message of the artwork. The colorful flashes of moments of life, the movement of a hundredth of a second, depicted in the painting, are highlighted and explained by the material qualities of the pastel, which also resemble something volatile and elusive.
Interesting facts
There are a couple of renowned creative personalities in Santa’s family tree – one of them is the distinguished Latvian landscape and horse painter Janis Lauva (1906-1986).
Santa Paula has grown up in a big family – she has two sisters and two brothers. She is the second oldest sibling in the family.
