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DELADIER ALMEIDA
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Deladier Almeida is a Brazilian painter currently residing in California. He cites his first calling to paint portraits at the age of five when he was taken to see a movie where an artist examined the stages of the process to paint the Mona Lisa by repainting the work as it was probably done. "I understood then and there, at the age of five, the magic of transforming a flat surface to create a three dimensional image. For me, at this young age, the intellectual exercise of layers and blending and technique of applying pigment to reproduce reality in a two dimensional construct was an awakening. I immediately began drawing my family and was notorious among my relatives for demanding that they sit for me to paint portraits." Throughout his teenage years growing up in Brazil, he says he took refuge
in his art; it was a constant friend, a redemption of his identity through
trying times. At the age of nineteen he went to work at an ad agency,
but it was his gift as an editorial illustrator that for five years brought
his work to the public eye and from 1983 to 1985 he worked exclusively
for the daily "O Estado de Sao Paulo", producing an extensive
series of portraits of important political leaders and heads of state.
During this time he enrolled at Unisanta University to study Industrial
Design, then to Catholic University of Santos to study Architecture and
Urban Planning. Neither were the direction that his soul dictated, but
it was during this time that he met and fell in love with a young American
student studying International Relations. They married, and soon moved
to the US, to his wife's home state of California, where he was afforded
the opportunity to further his art studies at the University of California.
In 1990 he earned his B.A. in Art Studio, studying with acclaimed artists,
the likes of Wayne Thiebaud, Sidney Goodman and Roland Petersen. Deladier has traveled extensively to the major museums of Europe for his personal investigation of the works of the old masters; Rembrandt, Franz Hals, Rubens, Van Dyck to name a few. He now has an active practice as a painter of portrait commissions. His portraits have won numerous awards including "Best of Show" at California's Biennial at the Crocker Art Museum, and First Place at the Annual Society of Western Artists Exhibition. Deladier is currently working on a series of portraits of Famous American Artists such as Judy Chicago, George Herms, and Gregory Kondos for the "Twentieth Anniversary Exhibition" at the John Natsoulas Center for the Arts. Deladier Almeida has been honored by his most recent commission, to paint the portrait of Mr. Edson Arantes do Nascimento - Pélé, to be hung at the entrance of the Pélé Museum, currently being built in Santos, Brazil. To Make Arrangements for Portrait Commissions |
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