Contest 10 – Winner's Interview – Sílvia São Paulo

Please tell us about your journey as an artist.

I have been drawing since I was a very young kid.

I remember being 4 years old and one of my drawings being used as an example for the other children at school. The exercise was to draw the teacher, and I was the only one who drew the full body instead of just a stick figure.

Since then, I have been drawing and painting on and off, but just as a hobby, as life got on its way.

When the 2020 pandemic occurred, I found I had a good opportunity to finally understand if my talent was real or just for fun.

I found online one of the best hyper-realistic artists, Dirk Dzimirsky, and decided to give myself a chance and take it more seriously. I took his mentoring program for 2 years, where I learned and improved my skills.

During that time, I was able to create a few artworks, which were sold to art collectors, and got an artwork issued in the Fine Art Connoisseur Magazine.

Today I work together with Dirk for his D.R.A.M.Academy.

What is your medium and why did you choose it?

My medium is graphite on paper.

I like how detailed it can get even when drawing on a small scale

What was the inspiration behind this work?

For “Breaking Views” it was the impact of social media on teenagers’ and young adults’ mental health.

Seeing it firsthand led me to reflect about it and gave me the inspiration to create both of these artworks.

Who is your favourite artist? Why?

It is quite difficult to pick just one favorite artist among so many different styles.

Rembrandt, nevertheless, is unquestionably at the top of my list. His paintings are incredibly intriguing because of the expressions, realism, smoothness, lighting and shadows