Inside Views

Thalia Stratton was the Grand Prize Winner of International Artist magazine’s Challenge No. 120, Favorite Subjects.

As a contemporary realist with a career spanning three decades, Thalia Stratton’s artwork reflects her world and captures moments in time and place. Often she focuses on her travels, particularly to her ancestral home of Greece. Many of her works are also interior paintings revolving around food.A Boisserie Afternoon, oil on canvas, 24 x 30"

“These themes lend themselves well to the creation of art, which merges my appreciation for architecture and architectural design sensibilities thereby allowing me to depict interior settings based on a culinary theme,” explains Stratton. “As a former illustrator, I am naturally drawn to the narrative; my process begins by recording a specific moment, a specific place and then transforming it into a fictional scene in order to create a powerful and distinct mood, one which records the moment and preserves the history of one’s own vision. The result is a quiet, yet visual dialogue with the viewer. I strive for timeless imagery, using imagery to transform images into everyday moments, building a window into a visual dialogue with the viewer’s own imagination.”Dining with Degas, oil on canvas, 20 x 16"

Champagne Afternoon, oil on canvas, 16 x 12"

Her interior and culinary paintings are specific examples, as she paints Old World restaurants and tea salons that are forever preserved on her canvases. The places sometimes no longer exist, but as Stratton explains, through her work, “The past is not forgotten. Or, as the great ancient Greek philosopher Epicurus said, ‘Do not spoil what you have by desiring what you have not—remember that what you now have was once among the things you only hoped for.’”

Stratton often takes photos of her subject because she is limited in working in public spaces, but sometimes will do the odd pencil sketch or minimal watercolor study. She explains, “I try to create a powerful composition, establishing strong value patterns, light and color, focusing on intricate architectural details, ornamentation, space, compositional relationships, architectural angles, textured objects, decorative surfaces and lush fabrics, all with a specific vision in mind.”Spring Bouquet, oil on canvas, 20 x 16"

She also understands the limitations of the camera and therefore, tries to be attune to her surroundings when observing the place. “Translating strong white and dark areas is often challenging as the artist must be careful not to cancel out value subtleties and transparent areas. Accordingly, I trained myself to paint what I know exists and not necessarily what I see in a particular photograph, organizing elements onto a picture plane to create a striking and cohesive composition. Master painters such as John Singer Sargent, James Tissot and 18th-century Greek artist Nikoforos Lytras have all influenced my paint application and as a result I have developed controlled, but expressive, brushwork.”Le Train Bleu, oil on canvas, 30 x 24"

Stratton is represented by New Masters Gallery in Carmel, California; Howard/Mandville Gallery in Woodinville, Washington; and Lee Youngman Gallery in Callistoga, California. She maintains a studio in San Francisco at the San Francisco Design Center and has published two books based on her dining series, The Art of Dining and a new cookbook, The Art of Dining: Epicurean Delights, coauthored with her nephew John Stratton, a San Francisco Culinary Institute, Cordon Bleu trained chef.

Stratton adds, “As I continue to search deeper into why I paint and what I paint, I hope my body of work represents the importance of the process I describe above and that it reflects a common thread, but at the same time, can be appreciated individually. I feel my interiors provide an insight into who I am, and who I am as an artist, and that the illustrative artistic process described will allow viewers to appreciate and understand my work, from its inception to its final execution.” —