Exclusive Interview with Nadine Tralala, 1st Prize Winner of the 33PA Emerging Artist Award, 2024 Beautiful Bizarre Art Prize by Lorena Kloosterboer.
Nadine Tralala is a figurative oil painter based in Germany. She skillfully implements traditional painting techniques using a fearlessly vivid colour palette to create dreamlike figures that both radiate light as well as intense emotion. She often includes animals to add beauty and a sense of symbolic meaning.
Her painting , I was Stone, was awarded 1st Prize of the 33PA Emerging Artist Award in the 2024 Beautiful Bizarre Art Prize. This painting pays tribute to the unyielding resilience and inner luminosity that shines within each of us. In this painting, the woman glows from within and brightens the darkness surrounding her, while the two lambs by her side symbolize rebirth and new beginnings.
Tell us about your beginnings as an artist and how your process developed from classic portraiture to the figures and animals you paint today.
There’s that saying about needing 10,000 hours to master a skill, so when I started creating art I went all in, obsessively portraying everyone around me – including way too many questionable self-portraits. My mission was to capture people as realistically and honestly as possible. I drove my family, friends, and myself up the wall trying to immortalize every wrinkle and blemish. But those years of suffering paid off and as a result I got an endless mental library of faces and poses.
I’m much more relaxed nowadays and don’t need references for everything anymore. I don’t have to keep people frozen in one pose for hours or take a gazillion bad photos of every detail. My loved ones are eternally grateful for this evolution.
Nowadays I often study myself under coloured lighting to get a feel for the different atmospheres light creates. I also use photos of friends or have friends give me quick poses as guidelines, sometimes I just improvise.
As for the figures I currently paint, they are amalgams of people I know using specific features, such as my mother’s ears, my own hands, a friend’s amazing orange hair. Rather than portraits, I see them more as anonymous figures that allow a broader interpretation. It’s quite a wild mix of approaches and I sometimes feel like I’m Frankenstein when I stitch everything together.
The animals I include often carry a symbolic meaning. Birds frequently appear in my paintings as a symbol of the connection between the earthly and the divine – messengers between both worlds. Even though animals always add another layer of emotion to the scene, the simple truth is that I just love animals, find them beautiful, and enjoy painting them.
I’m always thinking about how certain colour combinations will guide the viewer’s eye to specific parts of the composition and how I can create the atmosphere I have in mind. It’s a key part of my design process.
Many of your paintings, including your exquisite I was Stone, combine highly saturated, almost electric colours with more toned-down, muted colours. Tell us about how you choose your colour palette and your aims behind those colour combinations.
I typically have a general colour palette in mind before I start painting, but I’m not rigid about it; sometimes I just feel the urge to add a touch of pink, even if it doesn’t make sense in terms of realism. It’s more about capturing a feeling or pushing the composition in an unexpected direction. The contrast between bright colours and darker backgrounds is a way to give my figures a sense of presence, almost like they’re glowing entities emerging from the shadows. I like that a lot.
I use neon pigments in moderation, mixing them with more traditional pigments to create a balance. The use of colour in my work is very intentional – I’m always thinking about how certain colour combinations will guide the viewer’s eye to specific parts of the composition and how I can create the atmosphere I have in mind. It’s a key part of my design process.
How has your style evolved over time to achieve the current signature look to your art? Your current paintings emanate a lightness, a stillness, and also a seriousness of the human figure. You combine technical skill with elegant aesthetics. Tell us about your intentions.
I think it’s a natural progression to move towards a freer and more expressive style after one reaches a solid foundation in drawing and painting. In the beginning, I focused heavily on capturing every detail as accurately as possible, which was crucial for learning the fundamentals, but also extremely boring. Once I had that base, I felt more confident to experiment and bring my own aesthetic into my work, which is obviously way more colourful than the world really is.
Letting go of portrait commissions, where every detail has to be perfect, also played a big role. It gave me the freedom to explore and focus more on expression and atmosphere rather than pure accuracy and natural light.
I always say, “I inhale the world and paint a healed version of it.” The world is so complicated, restless, and often unbearably cruel. So my intention is to create calm, unhurried paintings where viewers can rest their eyes and mind, offering a moment of peace amidst the chaos.
You have a series entitled Nevermind that include dreamy portraits with faraway looks or closed eyes. Tell us the story behind this series.
My series Nevermind was a breakthrough for me and my artistic practice. The idea behind it was to create one hundred portraits in a short period of time, which helped develop a certain routine and loosen up my process. A lot of these portraits were done in sketchbooks, which took off the pressure of creating something “successful” and allowed me to focus more on the flow of the work. Most of the people I portrayed are artist friends; some of the portraits were based on photographs, others were done from live posing. It was a liberating experience that shifted my approach to portraiture, making it less about perfection and more about capturing a mood or an emotion.
When people see my work for the first time, my main hope is that it will make them stop and actually feel something.
Which historic periods, artists, and other forms of arts inspire you?
I could end up writing an art history book but will keep it brief; I’m highly inspired by the High Renaissance and Mannerism. However, it’s probably more interesting to hear which contemporary painters inspire me. Just to name a few: Jeremy Lipking, Hollis Dunlap, and Stanka Kordic.
I’m also inspired by the books written by Houellebecq, Hegel, Musil, and Sartre. When it comes to poetry, the deep melancholy of Ingeborg Bachmann is a big inspiration. And of course I’m inspired by music – from classical to EDM. Music evokes feelings in me that are as intense as when I’m looking at paintings.
What do you find the most exciting aspect of your work and what do you want the viewer to feel when seeing your work for the first time?
The most exciting part of the process for me is the early block-in stage. When everything is still rough, sketchy, undefined and the painting could go in any direction. It’s full of possibilities and that excites me every single time.
When people see my work for the first time, my main hope is that it will make them stop and actually feel something. If that feeling happens to be a positive one, then I’m completely happy. But even just getting a reaction – any reaction – means I’ve done my job as an artist.
Tell us about your studio life – working hours, deadlines, and whether you handle everything yourself. And your intriguing choice of Instagram handle.
My studio is at home and the lack of separation between work and living space means I tend to overwork pretty much all the time. I don’t have fixed hours, it’s more of a constant flow. I like the structure of deadlines as they help keep me focused.
My Instagram handle Kopfscheu (which in German literally translates to ‘head-shy’) reflects a bit of my personality. The word is used to describe the behaviour of horses that shy away when someone tries to touch their head and put on the reins.
I’m generally organized and still manage to handle everything on my own, even though it can be tough juggling all the peripheral aspects like bookkeeping, organizing, gallery correspondence, sales, packing and shipping, social media, and keeping stocked on art supplies. Being an artist often feels like running a five-person company with just one person.
You’re having a lot of success, deservedly so. Do you have a dream or goal that you would like to accomplish in the future?
Thank you! My goal is to continue being true to myself, to keep painting what I genuinely want to paint and what I deeply feel without having to compromise or conform. And, yes, I suppose a wildly ambitious dream would be to one day have my work shown in a renowned museum.
Why did you enter the Beautiful Bizarre Magazine Art Prize?
For years, I have been a big fan of Beautiful Bizarre and their celebration of art that is different. The unusual and the surreal has always resonated with me and I admire the artists Beautiful Bizarre shows. In 2024, I finally felt ready to take that step myself.
I decided to enter this contest, not only because of my admiration for the magazine, but because it’s the one contest that truly celebrates art that deviates from the ordinary. It feels like the perfect platform to push my boundaries and connect with a community of like-minded artists who value uniqueness.
What do you feel you have gained from this experience?
This experience has been incredibly rewarding for me. Everyone at Beautiful Bizarre is so kind and it truly felt like coming home to a community where I belong. So many opportunities have come from it: I’ve been invited to group shows, galleries have noticed my work, I’ve connected with many talented artists, and I’m now part of the Beautiful Bizarre Artist Directory. Most importantly, it’s been a huge boost to my self-esteem. As artists we often doubt ourselves and our art, so receiving external validation like this feels really good. It reassures me that what I create has value.
Would you recommend it and encourage others to enter? If so, why?
I would absolutely recommend participating! It’s a fantastic career boost and has significantly increased my visibility in the art world. If you’re looking to elevate your career and showcase your work to a wider audience, this is the perfect chance.