Summer Blooms

Painter Cara Livorio captures the beauty of the floral world. Here, a detail of her 2020 work, Floraison.

The lush language of petals and buds, sepals and sensuality, speaks in full voice to painter Cara Livorio. Her listening skills are apparent with every lushly painted contemplation of the botanical world. Cara “loaned” a painting to TABLE Magazine for our summer issue, and on the way to press we had a delicious conversation.

Keith Recker: What draws you to flowers?

Cara Lovorio: Flowers are the embodiment of beauty. The saturated bursts of blossoming color, their alluring fragrance, and the endless variety makes them incredibly tantalizing. Their delicate sculptural forms and the endless palettes of possibilities have captured my attention since I was a child. My grandmother grew a lovely flower garden and always had fresh flowers in her home. I deeply appreciate their beauty and grew up with a love for nature and gardening. Their existence is miraculous to me, and their fragile and temporal nature make them even more precious. I enjoy the seasonality of a blossoming garden or bouquet, and all stages of the cycle bring new life.

Painting something that is already so perfect in its beauty was my challenge, but I purposefully wanted to paint something that I find rather exquisite. How could I add value? Given the long history of floral painting, I also wanted to make a contemporary statement. I had little interest in painting a botanical study or a still life of a floral arrangement. The idea of a “still life” goes against the very nature of how I see florals. They are anything but still. They are wild and transformational sculptures. I desire to depict their living energy and their dynamism as they burst into the stages of blooming and beyond. My goal is to depict not one moment, but an experience that is in constant flux, not static. I use a myriad of painting techniques to create a sense of motion and sophisticated color schemes to elicit mood and intrigue. Some florals are constructed with thick slabs of paint while others are deconstructing through washes or bleeding paint pours. Flowers are an expression of the joy and color that can exist, and for a brief moment, one can find pure beauty and hopefulness.

Keith: What is your favorite flower? Color? Season?

Cara: I composed multitudes of flower arrangements as inspiration for my B(L)OOM! series, filling up my studio with florals for weeks at a time. It is hard to choose my favorite flower as they all add their own unique punch, texture or mood to an intriguing bouquet. However, roses are by far my favorite to paint. I love their structure and depth, and I can really go crazy with the paint. A rose embodies such beauty and elegance; if I had to choose, I would land on a ‘Peace’ Hybrid Tea Rose, a yellow/cream rose that bleeds into pink at its tips.

Color lies at the core of my practice, and my heightened perception of color makes it difficult to have a preference. However, my favorite color is a shade of yellow. Maybe I will call it “Grilled Pineapple” or “Burnt Honey”. It is not chartreuse, it’s not yellow or orange—you would find it in the shadow of a sunflower.

I enjoy all of the seasons, but spring blending into summer is my favorite time of year. Spring is uplifting for the awakening of color and life, but ironically, I suffer from seasonal allergies that punish me for every inhalation of springtime air. However, as the pollen starts to fade and spring melds into summer, that is my sweet spot, my top of the rollercoaster. The anticipation of summer’s abundance and those initial days of full plants dancing in the sun is blissful.

Keith: How would you describe your technique?

Cara: I am obsessed with oil paint and experimentation with my medium. My painting is wild, intuitive and full of texture. I like to vary the painting style throughout the painting so that there are different “languages” and levels of construction versus deconstruction. I adore sculpting with thick paint like icing on a cake, and certain areas of the painting are very structural. Other areas are more unfinished, loose, and one can see glimpses of my underpainting and colorful paint washes. Basically, I use a myriad of painting techniques and applications to create something fresh and exciting, full of movement and energy. It is an operatic blend of the artist’s vocabulary that when read as a whole, culminates in a stimulating final result.

Keith: You paint daily. What does that discipline bring you? Visceral understanding of paint handling? Immediate, unthinking connection with subject matter?

Cara: I wish that I could paint every single day, but I paint as often as possible in one week. Being a new mom, my workaholic expectations have had to shift to find balance. When I could truly paint like crazy, it was freeing to dedicate myself primarily to my work and to challenging my ideas. I own and have run a small art school since 2015 but even then, I had the time to focus on my craft. I would argue that I have experienced the highest form of discipline since becoming a mother. My time is so precious now, as it is in limited and unpredictable supply, but my experience away from the canvas is valuable for this reason. I am sharper, I am more focused, and I yearn to paint. When I have those golden moments to create, I am overflowing with ideas, enthusiasm and vigor. I tackle the canvas. It is also positive to be forced to step away and view the work with a new perspective.

It is my combined experience during the many phases of life dedicated to art-making that have sharpened my skills and have provided me with a visceral and profound understanding of paint handling and confidence in my natural instincts. I am obsessed with challenging my own boundaries, and I feel at peace with my artistic journey.

Keith: What’s your fantasy commission? What have you not yet been asked to do with your art that you’d like to do?

Cara: A transformational moment for me was standing in front of Monet’s waterlilies at the Carnegie Museum of Art. I studied it in detail and got lost amidst his brushstrokes and then I backed away to see the magnificent whole. I fantasize about creating a painting of a giant scale that wraps around an entire room to create an immersive and enchanting experience. I am most exhilarated when I’m painting on a large scale because it gives me the space to be wild and expressive.

Pittsburgh native Cara Livorio obtained her BFA in drawing and painting and pursued graduate studies in visual art and curatorship in Milan, Italy. Cara’s work has been exhibited nationally and internationally and resides in private collections throughout the United States and in Europe. Her current series, “B(L)OOM!”, takes floral compositions that are naturally beautiful in design and elevates them into an expression of color, form, and texture that is dynamic and raw. Cara is the owner of the art school, gallery and art boutique, Artissima Studio, located in Fox Chapel, Pennsylvania. Visit her website for more.