Eva Humphrey Lahti
Mediums Used
Eva’s art moves pleasingly between figurative and abstract in a distinct and enticing style. She is passionate about colour and light and excited about capturing a fleeting line, interpreting the emotion of a moment frozen in time.
Eva showed her artistic talent from a very early age, stimulated no doubt growing up surrounded by the glamour of Opera; her father was a professional opera singer and mother a multi-talented textile artist and jewelery designer.
Eva’s many interests and curiosity lead her naturally to create a diverse and versatile body of works. She possesses an intuitive ability to create many forms of art including drawing, painting, prints, reliefs and sculpture. Her artistic heroes are Picasso, Schjerfbeck and Nicholson amongst others.
Eva has received private commissions for her portraiture and sculpture and has shown her works in regional galleries and public exhibitions, as well as in Cork Street, London. Her works can be found in private collections both in the UK and in Belgium, also Finland, Spain and Sweden. Her paintings have been preselected for the Columbia Threadneedle Prize in 2015.
Eva began her studies in Interior Architecture and Furniture Design at the University of Industrial Arts in Helsinki, Finland.
She received her MA in Architecture and Design from the Royal College of Art, London. Eva also attended an open studies sculpture course at Hatfield University.
Being passionate and excited about a fleeting beautiful line, light or colour, my many interests and an endless curiosity lead me naturally and intuitively to create a diverse and versatile body of works, including drawing, painting, prints, bas-reliefs as well as sculpture. Although my work ranges widely from monochromatic to colourful, from figurative to abstract, I often build up a thematic series around a specific genre. Observation of the visual effects of structure and rhythms in both the natural and the manmade is part of the intuitive creative process, which extracts the essence and brings it all together for me.
The meeting of the graphic, visual and structural with the deeper spiritual and emotional is an integral part for everything I do. My focus is to create art that inspires others to see the beauty around us, whether it is simplified in abstraction or movement extrapolated into form. This leads naturally to continual experimentation with media, materials and mark making. Having several career paths has given me an even deeper understanding of structure in anatomical terms, adding to the grounding from my architectural and design background. I draw from a deep memory bank of form, images, colour, sentences and sounds, with subconscious interconnections.
I paint mainly in oils, as I love the smell and feel of them and am continually fascinated by the variety of finishes and effects possible with this traditional time proven medium. I love the feel of the traditional practice of modeling in clay but like to embrace other exciting and more modern methods of making sculptural pieces. I enjoy experimenting and am excited by the possibilities of new and mixed media in both 2 and 3D, although I like to see my artwork give long range pleasure and value to art collectors. I feel that the interdisciplinary approach to my work and my experience in diverse areas of life help enrich the quality and depth of my work, enabling me to build and maintain a continuum of coherent esthetic nexus.
Sculptures by Eva Humphrey Lahti
Credentials
Qualifications
Eva began her studies in Interior Architecture and Furniture Design at the University of Industrial Arts in Helsinki, Finland (1983-1987).
She received her MA in Architecture and Design from the Royal College of Art, London (1987-1989).
Eva also attended an Open Studies course in Sculpture at the School of Creative Arts at Hatfield University (2012 -13) to learn how to breathe life into her 3D ideas and have been inspired to further work in sculpture ever since.,Eva began her studies in Interior Architecture and Furniture Design at the University of Industrial Arts in Helsinki, Finland (1983-1987).
She received her MA in Architecture and Design from the Royal College of Art, London (1987-1989).
Eva also attended an Open Studies course in Sculpture at the School of Creative Arts at Hatfield University (2012 -13) to learn how to breathe life into her 3D ideas and have been inspired to further work in sculpture ever since.Exhibitions
yes
Awards
2015 Elected Member of Cambridge Drawing Society
Publications
Born 06.11.1962 in Finland (nee Eva Marianna Lahtinen)
Finnish and British nationality
Background:
Eva grew up surrounded by the glamour of Opera; her father was a professional opera singer and mother a multi-talented textile artist and jewellery designer. Eva showed artistic talent from a very early age; her first surviving ‘artwork’ dates from 18 months of age; her first sentence was to ask for more paper to draw on.
In addition to work in a variety of architectural and design projects, Eva has quite a diverse background. In her search for understanding of the world we live in and what makes people tick, she has also forged parallel career paths in holistic and Traditional Chinese medicine, human anatomy and physiology, as well as in depth studies in human and animal behaviour.
Eva`s paintings have been selected for exhibitions in Cork Street, London, preselected for the Columbia Threadneedle Prize 2015 and the New English Art Club 2016. Eva exhibits regionally and her works can be found in private collections around the UK and in Belgium, Finland, Spain and Sweden.
Eva accepts and welcomes commissions. Hand finished Limited Editions of her work are also available.
Eva undertook an Open Studies course in Sculpture at the School of Creative Arts at Hatfield University (2012 -13) to learn how to breathe life into her 3D ideas and have been inspired to continue with sculpture ever since.
She received an MA in Architecture and Design from the Royal College of Art in London (1987-1989) after degree studies in Interior Architecture and Furniture Design at the University of Industrial Arts in Helsinki, Finland (1983-1987).
Eva`s inspiration comes from observing the many life forms and landscapes, as well as the inanimate and man made world around her, from the most basic detail to the utmost of the ethereal, causing kaleidoscopic bursts of ideas in her mind. People, animals and natural forms along with the deep responses to her own and others’ emotions, continue to fascinate her as subjects. Eva has an overflowing love of nature, spends a lot of time outdoors and has great fun exploring the Gestalt Effect, which enhances the way she looks at the human and animal form, as she sees faces, limbs, movement and parts, as well as whole bodies in the landscape, trees, looser structures and of course cloud formations. These are a continual inspiration for ideas.
Movement and dance is also a source of inspiration and Eva especially loves the dynamism of form that athletes, especially divers and gymnasts achieve. She is delighted by how a static piece, with its contorted form can portray a specific mood and feeling of the piece, powerfully displaying its energy.
The effect of the scale of things amazes her, from the minute to the massive and back again. Eva has been drawing from life on and off for a long time and for sculpture she has had access to live models on her course at Hatfield. Eva uses her knowledge of anatomy and observational skills along with drawing fully from a deep memory bank of form, images, colour, sentences and sounds, with subconscious interconnections when working with current pieces of object-based work.
Her artistic heroes are Picasso, an amazing multi-disciplinarian, her fellow Finn, Helene Schjerfbeck and Ben Nicholson. Also Arp, Brancusi, Manzu to name a few more in sculpture.
