Exclusive Interview with Adrienne Stein, 2nd Prize Winner of the RAYMAR Painting Award, 2025 Beautiful Bizarre Art Prize by Andrea Kovacic
There is a quiet radiance that threads through Adrienne Stein’s work — a sense that myth, memory, and the living world are always leaning toward one another, exchanging secrets in colour and light. As the 2nd Prize Winner of the RAYMAR Painting Award for the Beautiful Bizarre Art Prize 2025 for her luminous Swan Fantasy I, Adrienne Stein stands at that rare intersection where virtuoso technique meets an unguarded, emotional truth. Her paintings feel like thresholds: swans glide between earthly devotion and mythic symbolism, flowers rise to the dignity of icons, and familiar landscapes in Pennsylvania become dream-spaces charged with metamorphosis.
Adrienne Stein’s vision is rooted in close observation — a feather’s tilt, a bloom’s gesture, a figure caught in a moment between breath and revelation — yet she allows these fragments of reality to unfurl into entire worlds of metaphor. In her practice, the symbolic is never separate from the real; instead, it blooms naturally from lived experience, motherhood, travel, and the shifting textures of light around her home.
In this interview, Adrienne Stein invites us into that fertile space where instinct meets imagination. She speaks candidly about transformation, romanticism, artistic lineage, and the brave act of trusting one’s own vision — revealing how the smallest spark of a moment can become an expansive cosmos on canvas.
Interview with Adrienne Stein
You’ve written that “Swan Fantasy I” was inspired by Frank Brangwyn’s “The Swans”, and by observing a pair of mated swans in Colorado. Could you walk us through the journey from that real-life observation to the final painting: how did the swans’ movement, environment, and mood translate into your colour palette, composition, and symbolic gesture?
Swans mate for life, so my recent series of swan paintings is an ode to romantic love and married life. My original idea was to paint a single swan, but as I observed a pair of mated swans over the course of two days, I noticed that they rarely went anywhere without one another. I knew that I had to paint them as couples! I took hundreds of photos and videos of them.
The superimposed background environments are various gardens I have visited in recent years and I worked out each composition digitally before I dove into the oil paintings. Each painting has a different overall palette, capturing a different mood and vibrations.
When you begin a new painting, how do you choose which part is anchored in direct observation (for example a swan, a tree, a figure) and which part you allow to drift into the symbolic or mythic realm? Could you give an example from a recent work where that boundary shifted unexpectedly?
Yes, my painting “Demeter” (Goddess of the Harvest) was modelled by my muse and friend, Sydney. Sydney had posed for some small studies from life, and I wanted to expand on it. When I had her pose for a photo shoot for another idea, I gave her a length of gold fabric to hold and it gave me a whole new idea of her as the harvest goddess with a river of flowing gold drapery transforming into dried flowers and sunflowers and an apple tree overhead with semi-decaying fruit and bugs like a Flemish still life, and an Autumn sunset behind her. This is how a brief flash of a vision can become a whole world for me.
What is your approach to colour and light—do you conceive of it first mentally, or allow it to emerge through layering?
In the past, I used a more gradual layering of paint, but as I’ve become a more confident and experienced painter, I work more directly, even using a palette knife to apply paint in some passages. These days I go straight to the bold colour!
My husband and I spend most of our time now at our home in rural southern Pennsylvania. It’s a historic home on 3 acres of heavily landscaped property so the garden has become a big part of our lives and inspiration. Over the years, I have been inspired by my travels in Europe, Asia, and Africa, but lately I’ve drawn much inspiration from the peaceful natural environment surrounding our home.
Are there particular historic paintings or techniques you revisit and how have you adapted them for your current work?
Some experiences that come to mind are my first time visiting Venice in my 20s and seeing the work of the Venetian painters – mostly Titian, Tintoretto, and Veronese- and the rich colours they achieved through glazing and indirect painting techniques. Also, visiting Joaquin Sorolla’s home and studio museum in Madrid really inspired me and showed me the possibilities of colour.
What draws you to metamorphosis as a theme, and do you see it as metaphorical for the artistic process itself?
Yes, the greatest metamorphosis I have experienced in my life is becoming a wife and a mother. It was joyful but also scary and daunting, just like the early stages of a painting. Learning to trust the process and trust your instincts is crucial as a parent and as a painter. I have always been criticised by many I respected in the art world for being “too romantic” or “too sweet” in my work and it had been a point of shame for me in the past. But I learned that the more I stayed true and embraced my vision, the more success came my way.
Could you share a specific personal myth or memory that has repeatedly surfaced in your work—perhaps one you still revisit—and how you transform it into something universal for the viewer?
I recently painted two paintings of irises I observed closely at a botanical garden. In them, a larger iris towers over and shelters a smaller bud. All I could see was a Renaissance Madonna and Child, and I had recently become a mother. I tried to light them and position them on the canvas as though they were Byzantine icons – elevating them to Divine Mother archetypes from just mere flowers.
What does a typical day in your studio look like — and how do you protect the kind of mental space required to sustain that level of focus and imagination?
Now that I have a 4-year-old, the only time I have to paint is when he is in preschool 3 days a week, so I make that time count! I used to work late into the night and my schedule was my own, but now I am forced to structure my studio time, and it has been healthy for me.
Why did you enter the Beautiful Bizarre Magazine Art Prize?
I’ve always felt a kinship with Beautiful Bizarre Magazine and the artists they feature. I love that it is a platform devoted to showing a specific genre of art – namely, imaginative realism. Since I consider myself a “magical realist”, I felt my work was a fit.
What do you feel you have gained from this experience?
It’s a point of pride to be a prize winner alongside other artists I admire so much. Positive feedback like that confirms to me that I’m on the right path!
Learning to trust the process and trust your instincts is crucial as a parent and as a painter.
Would you recommend it and encourage others to enter? If so, why?
Yes, it is a wonderful challenge to enter your best work with a spirit of friendly competition. Since it’s competitive and so many artists enter, being a finalist or prize winner really means something.
Looking ahead: what new terrain do you feel drawn to explore in your next series?
In August 2026, I will be having my very first museum show at the Museum of Western Art in Kerrville, TX in the U.S. For this show, I am exploring the iconography of the American West and enjoying painting the landscapes, animals, figures, and colours of this very distinctive part of America.