Rita Da Costa

My work could be defined as a passage of the memory through time, a diffusion of details to achieve synthesis. Through a process that embraces mutations, the painter travels from the concrete to more abstract and essential.

Thus, in my first phase, called "Memory Reflexes", the moments, filled with faces or landscapes, are as though reflected in water and distorted by its ripples. Our sensorial perception is subjective; the interpretation that we make almost always is deformed and illusionary. Thus, the subject is assumed through the gesture and construction of the figure. The figure is increasingly deformed, its contours and colors are dissolved into one another and eventually lost, as though sunk deep into the abyss.

In my second phase, the landscape or scene becomes completely abstract, the moment is confused, as if the speed of the scene increased and thus has become imperceptible. Here, the colors and the components of the composition are dissolved in spots, giving only general information via the tonalities of the scene and localization of greater or minor density of elements.

In the third phase, a clear summary of momentary perception and passing of the time is constructed, devoid of a conclusion, and reduced to its essence. In this phase, the search of the essential of each scene leads to the meeting of the eastern drawing of the Zen philosophy, paintings consisting of a single gesture, a moment captured in time. The painter's gesture is the focus of the painting, captured against a neutral backdrop, emphasizing the emptiness.

E-MAIL: RCostapainting@hotmail.com
http://www.ritadacosta.com