Carmelo Blandino
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Chopin Etudes VI, 2020
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Nocturnes No. 4, 2020
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Blossom III, 2017
“There is a sense of romance and history associated to encaustic paint that inspires me. Just like the ancient Romans and Egyptians who brought special care and attention to this medium, I feel a need to continue in that tradition”.
Carmelo Blandino was born of Sicilian parents in 1966 in Tübingen, Germany. His family emigrated in Canada the following year. After establishing himself as a top illustrator and having for nine years brought his passion for art to students of Illustration and Design at DawsonCollege in Montreal, Blandino has returned to his first passion, painting. His love for painting as a means of expression has led him to work in encaustic. “There is a sense of romance and history associated to encaustic paint that inspires me. Just like the ancient Romans and Egyptians who brought special care and attention to this medium, I feel a need to continue in that tradition”. Choosing to work on larger surfaces, and in a more contemporary style, the result is work that is introspective and moody, offering challenging suggestions to the viewer.
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Chopin Etudes VI, 2020
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Nocturnes No. 4, 2020
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Blossom III, 2017
Born to Sicilian parents in Tübingen, Germany, and raised in the culturally charged cities of Montreal and Sicily, Blandino studied art and design at local colleges in Montreal. He then embarked on a successful career as a freelance illustrator, working with architects, designers and advertising agencies before shifting his focus to the world of fine art. Blandino’s paintings are informed heavily by his Sicilian heritage as well as the baroque style.
Where Carmelo Blandino has proved himself exceptional is coaxing forth of something deeper and greater from his subjects. His works unify raw, earthly sensuality with the transcendental, the ineffable: verve and vivacity interwoven with clarity and serenity.
“My work is a continuance of the practice of the Buddhist monks who would bring a single flower to their meditation session. They would ask the students to stare at it in silence for a long period of time. Eventually, the student comes to realize that he is gazing upon his own true form: a higher Self materializes within the form of the flower and the flower transcends beyond its visual appearance. Recognizing that all energy originates from one source, the mind is elevated to a more enlightened. The student and the flower are one.”
Today, the paintings of Blandino are widely known for their immediacy and their sensual, even lascivious expressions of colour, movement, and shape. His work is exhibited in New York, Palm Beach, Naples, Stockholm, Calgary, Vancouver, Toronto and his beloved Montreal. He has conducted summer workshops at Von Liebig Art Center of Naples, Florida, and taught drawing for many years at Dawson College in Montreal before transplanting to Naples, Florida where he lives today.
