Featured Artist Daniel Pailes-Friedman

Artist Daniel Pailes-Friedman shares a fascinating portfolio of dynamic and colorful abstract paintings. View more by visiting his website.

 

 

Painting is a deeply personal and centering process. I focus a lot on the balance between positive and negative space, how one supports the other.

 

 

There’s something so powerful in the emptiness that surrounds the forms, how the void becomes as important as the shapes themselves. Painting is a balance between what feels intuitive and what requires deliberate thought.

 

 

I’m always aware of how forms have the ability to breathe life into the painting, allowing the eye to rest and creating a sense of openness. I love how the void can shift the meaning of what’s there, transforming something simple into something profound.

 

 

Color is my greatest inspiration. It speaks to me, guiding my choices. I never see color in isolation. It’s always in conversation with other colors, building relationships on the canvas. Just as in music, where individual notes only truly come alive when arranged together, color creates its own harmony when combined, shifting from vibrant to muted, transparent to opaque.

 

 

Each shade I choose feels like an emotional note, setting the tone for the piece. It’s like a conversation unfolding, and I follow where it leads. Sometimes colors blend harmoniously, other times they contrast or clash, creating tension that energizes the work.

 

 

My forms emerge spontaneously, but there’s a structure to them, often geometric in nature. I don’t plan too much; I let the forms evolve naturally, letting the painting tell me where it wants to go.

 

 

Yet, within this spontaneity, there’s also decision-making—a constant dance between intuition and intellect. Always weighing what feels right versus what makes sense for the composition.

 

 

Each painting is its own journey. Some come together easily, flowing in a way that feels almost effortless, while others take time, revealing themselves slowly, like a puzzle waiting to be solved. In the end, every piece is a continuation of the last, part of a larger exploration that keeps me coming back to the canvas, ready to begin again.

 

Daniel Pailes-Friedman invites you to follow on Instagram.

 

 

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