This artist paints vibrant portraits from her two studios in Germany and Portugal, hoping to capture the aura and true essence of a human soul, finds Ramsha Vistro ▸
When you lay your eyes upon Tania Ravilis’ art, you are met with an amalgamation of vivid colours, merged through expressive strokes, creating intense portraits. The human soul is what she aims to capture, with its enigmatic – yet often predictable – nature, presenting a compelling canvas to encapsulate the aura of her sitters; an intangible embodiment of their existence.
In the beginning, these brush strokes were shy, guided by the sense of countless books by several Old Masters and their recreated works. But with each passing year, Tania’s movements became more assertive, with her palette embracing bolder colours. “I now take in the sheer joy of covering wooden panels and canvases with broad brush strokes, painting shadows with Deep Ultramarine or vivid Mars Orange. The journey has been magical.
“I tend to paint paired or group portraits and even when dealing with solitary figures, I emphasise the existence of a silent speaker beyond the canvas. My portraits invariably allude to ‘the other,’ as I firmly believe that a subject’s coherent image can only materialise through another’s gaze. Without this prism of perception, a portrait risks becoming an empty vessel, a mere assembly of external features. My goal is to transcend the superficial, to create art that doesn’t merely replicate a person’s physical appearance but mirrors their essence, their spirit. After all, true artistry lies not just in what the eyes see, but in what the soul feels.”
Tania has previously drawn inspiration from Lucian Freud, Maria Fortuny, Helene Schjerfbeck and Sam Szafran. “Frantisek Kupka’s The Yellow Scale (ca. 1907) holds a special place in my heart, as do the portraits by Carlos Federico Sáez. A pivotal moment in my artistic journey was coming across a photoshoot in the September 1985 issue of Architectural Digest, featuring Rudolf Nureyev in his Paris apartments. Those images significantly influenced my artistic trajectory.”
Yet, she strives to contemporise these inspirations, infusing the palette with a sense of modern aesthetic: “a shimmering yet elusive filter of modernity,” as she calls it, aiming to reflect our era’s unique visual language while delving into the timeless depths of human emotion.
Tania’s family was never really into art. The creative world’s allure dawned upon her at 17, with a sudden, insatiable d
