Stev’nn Hall. Where the photography meets the painting

Having studied the art of both photography and painting in one of the Montreal universities, Stev’nn Hall has come to a conclusion that only camera is not enough to fully depict the unique colors and textures. As well as only paints and brushes are not enough either. In his series of works mixed-media he combines everything he knows; everything that has ever been a subject of arguments between photographers and painters.

We would like to outline, that this kind of art has almost nothing to do with digital art as it may seem from the first sight. Mixed-media is a comparatively new and not popular kind of multimedia art among famous artists and designers.

So what exactly did Stev’nn come up with? Simply holding his camera in one hand he thought of using the other one for brushes and paints! Such combined (or as it more often called “hybrid”) art Stev’nn has started since 2008 and has has greatly improved up to present times. Thanked to his skills improved as the years go by, Hall makes real masterpieces out of usual photos. These pictures express the most romantic mood and and the overwhelming beauty of the surrounding nature. The first step is a photography. As a rule, the artist works with landscapes: the lakes, covered with the fury blankets of clouds; fields, gold-bright in the sun, farmhouses, keeping silent in the rain sounds. Then he prints every photo out on tens of separate photographs and glues them on a wooden base. And then goes the final stage — painting the big picture with oil. It still remains a secret, how the artist manages to get such unique colors. It seems that his colors are far beyond any names or standards. Blue from a heaven azure, pink from a childhood bubblegum, green from a traffic light. Layer by layer and hatch by hatch Stev’nn fills every picture with the soul of a real painter.

Besides such tender and and filled with pure beauty landscapes, Stev’nn also creates emotional, sensitive and sometimes brutal series of men’s portraits. These works are partially painted with oil and partially are the photographs. In these artwork we see an absolutely different side of the artist. His unique color rendering now serves not to create a sky azure or the freshness of morning dew, it shows blood, bruises and terrified eyes of strong men.

It lets us understand that there two worlds living and developing inside of Stev’nn Hall: beautiful and cruel, naturally pure and spoiled people. And these two world strongly influence his art in general. “Lost in the comfort of innocence but gripped by the fear of the oncoming adult world… are both magical and menacing”. This is how Stev’nn himself describes his artistic approach and it’s unlikely that anyone will get to describe it better.

Get acquainted with Stev’nn Hall on his Facebook and follow him on Instagram.