METROPOLIS

Capturing the energy and excitement of life in the city

Buy City Life Prints From Elena Bond’s Metropolis Series

Cities represent the culmination of human development and endeavor. They are the epicenter of culture, art, science, and commerce and for the visual artist, they provide an endless challenge to depict its architecture, its moods, its secrets, and especially its unique inhabitants. Elena Bond’s paintings represent her attempt to capture the essence of those qualities in places as diverse from one another as New York City, Miami, Chicago, Washington DC, Anchorage, New Orleans to Paris, Antiqua, Rome, Amsterdam, and Mykonos. Bond often starts with an idea, or a series of ideas involving a particular place or cast of characters, then as she paints her imagination takes over as she creates a unique magical environment that refers to a particular place but really has a life and character of its own.

This happens naturally as Elena Bond becomes immersed in the experience, interpreting the world around her and seeking to capture on canvas or paper not only the visual impression of light and color but other sensory aspects of the scene.  These sensory aspects include warmth or chilliness, sounds, atmosphere, or other specific activities around her subjects as she paints a particular place and time. She uses a bright palette, modeled on her Impressionist ancestor’s method but the excitement in her work comes from the rapid palette knife strokes and energy she gets from her attempts to catch the light as it washes across a scene. The result is a total sensory experience of light, color, and texture that challenges and engages the viewer in a totally new way.

Metropolis series
Elena bond's metropolis series

Elena Bond’s Inspiration For Her Metropolis Series

“The way light falls on an object has always fascinated me and in my paintings, I strive to capture that interesting effect the light plays on subjects. I believe an artist’s job is to make people notice things they see in everyday life but fail to really notice. I believe there is so much subtle beauty in the world, and it is the artists’ job to make people learn how to see it. I invite you, the gallery visitor, to imagine the narratives for the palette paintings I call “little theaters.” I provide the composition. You may provide the story.”

Elena Bond’s love of travel and exploration sparks the inspiration, both spiritual and visual, that she derives from experiencing new landscapes, people, and culture, this in turn invigorates her work and challenges her to both depict and understand our world. She paints places and people where the weather, traditions, and geography may vary but the elements that identify and characterize these particular locales can be interpreted by her as universal themes that unite us and bring us together as humans.

METROPOLIS SERIES

MIDNIGHT SERIES