Eolake Stobblehouse is the founder and chief editor of DOMAI.
More Stobblehouse art can be found at stobblehouse.com

On the one hand, it may seem too pompous to compare the work of a new artist with that of an established master; on the other, it may seem too modest and anachronistic to say a new artist works in a tradition established more than a hundred years ago. Yet if we take a look at Eolake Stobblehouse's painting "Sangirl," we see in it the traces of Van Gogh's expressionism combined with the newness of graphic and pop art.

It's above the expressionism that stands out. Van Gogh was one of the first, and certainly one of the most compelling, artists to show us that expression in art is all about movement and color. The swirls and frenzied motion of brushstrokes; the vivid colors and sharp contrasts, these could convey mood and emotion as much as tears of anguish on the human face. Stobblehouse's "Sangirl" carries on, quite beautifully, this tradition. The body of the girl is sunny; a golden yellow with shading that hints at three-dimensionality and gives her form more tonality and vibrancy of color. The girl is all sunshine against a bright blue background that whispers: it is she who is the sun. The sun, but very human, very feminine, protected from blending into nature by the bright red contours that outline her female form. Her downcast gaze, contemplating something more distant than the sun itself, suggests a bluer mood, contrasting with the illumination of her body and flowing psychologically into the blueness of her surroundings.

This painting captures above all, through simple and sharp juxtapositions, the mood of color. The brightness of the girl's body contrasts with the slight blueness of her mood; the brilliant blueness of the background further illuminates the sunshine of her body. Expressionism, with a twist.

Professor Claudia Moscovici