Stella Cade is a Toronto based painter who's primary focus is the female figure. Look at those colours! We love how the women are not idealized, and her paintings feels raw, unapologetic, and relatable.
She uses a combination of local and non-local colour, which gives the work a sense of unreality and contributes to the construction of each model's identity. The replacement of real space in the background of the work with colour washes and geometric forms causes the models to become the primary focus. The paint handling itself is delightfully energetic, with even the most finished areas of the painting feeling quick and decisive. Her body of work as a whole displays a sense of empowerment through the wide range of emotion encapsulated in its female models. The women vary between avoiding and meeting the gaze, proudly displaying their nudity or covering it up, and even taking on grotesque forms and expressions, putting a large range of human emotions and female experiences on display.
Stella Cade paints real women in a beautiful, colourful, and slightly scary kind of way. We can see ourselves reflected in these paintings, as we've definitely had days where we felt a little unfinished or monstrous.
