about

Florine Imo is an Austria based painter currently studying in the Academy of fine Arts, Vienna. Throughout her studies Florine developed a special technique, combining soft pastels, acrylic gel and oil color on canvas. She grew up around the Vienna Woods, where she developed her admiration for vegetation and animals. The buddhistic philosophy, for example the illusion of duality, had a great impact on the artists world view and her work.

"The mood of a place is always very important. Everything happens in spaces, and our energy stays there for a while after. I want to engage with a painting when I can feel the mood. Shadows, wind, and electricity in the air all need to transcend over the edge of the artwork and into the room. My figures are the bodies of my ideas. Today they become the representatives of the mood and attitude, while still being completely independent from my intentions. I’ve been asked why I only paint females, and to be honest - for a long time this question never even crossed my mind. I am a woman painting women, because the most honest way to express a certain feeling, is to show how a woman moves through space. “The grin“ in my paintings came to mind through fast sketches. It gives my figures power and danger, but also a certain kind of sensitivity and ugliness. It adds another layer of character, while giving them too much individuality to fit the concept of the “pretty one.” They turn more and more into their own beings, winding themselves away from my control. Often, it’s as if the figure in the painting has its own idea about what the painting needs. It’s not just about painting shapes to build a figure, instead the women represented become so real and heavy that I automatically turn into one of them. I can’t withhold the energy they emit, and my goal is that no one else can.”

"It’s important how my figures and objects feel in my pieces, what they wear, how they stand or lay or interact. Each one of them is alive to me. I start with sketching the composition directly on to the canvas. I believe for this part it is crucial to be totally free. That’s also why I don’t make detailed sketches any more, they don’t allow me to fly. Having an idea is good, but never force what you have in your mind on the canvas, just go with the flow and trust yourself. The painting tells you what it needs any ways. For inspiration I look inside myself, what is happening with- and around me. I can get an idea for a piece from a dream or a memory or a poem, but in the end these are just stimulants for my soul, which I later try to unfold on to the canvas."