Sophie Treppendahl. I love Sophie’s subject matter. Her paintings are not typical which is so refreshing. For instance, she paints wonderful clothing portraits. I know! You have to see to believe. As I scrolled through I could picture these paintings hanging and making such a cool statement. Kind of like the self portrait above – Sophie has a way with light, she captures it beautifully. All the shadows are so interesting! Brilliant! Check out more of Sophie’s paintings…
See more of Sophie’s work via these links:
Website | Instagram
Read a bit about Sophie, from her website:
I paint because I love the way shadows and light can completely change an object or a place. I want to capture that feeling of being temporarily overwhelmed by the thing in front of you – when it feels both otherworldly and ordinary.I paint because I love the people around me and the way they make me feel. I paint the things I want to keep. The quiet at the river, the sun on my favorite shirt, the shadow on my best friends face.
Through painting, I aim to capture not the likeness to an image but the overwhelming feeling of the space or a memory. In my studio, I work from recorded observations, often photographs and drawings, that then serve as a springboard to explore pattern, color, light and shadow. When creating, the representation becomes secondary, my primary focus becoming the painting process itself. As I translate reflection, pattern, and shadows through paint, the image lends itself to abstraction, manipulation and exaggeration. Through this, the painting takes on new life. And instead of creating a hollow representation of a moment that once was, I hope to create something altogether new – a painting imbued with the vibrance of that instance, the glow of how it felt, and the love of translating it through paint.
I am currently living and working in Richmond, Virginia. I am from St. Francisville, a small town in Louisiana. My mother is an artist and thanks to her I started painting as a kid, I did my first oil painting at age 4 (with her help, of course). I moved to South Carolina for college and received my BA in painting and printmaking from College of Charleston. After graduating I remained in Charleston and worked for Garden & Gun magazine for a few years before leaving for traveling, a stint in New York, and finally landing in Richmond, Virginia. I teach at a few community non-profits here in town, and work in my studio at a shared space called Studio Two Three.
Catch you back here tomorrow!